GYR-FALCONS. 311 



ments were extreme length, twenty inches ; wing, 

 from carpal joint, fourteen and a half inches." 



Mr. Lloyd Patterson visited the Copeland Islands 

 on purpose to verify the statement of Williams, the 

 keeper, that he had a Gyr-Falcon, obtained on the 

 rock. Williams had previously stated to me : " The 

 Gyr-Falcon I shot was quite white, with black bands 

 across wings and tail. Another was killed by my 

 companion two days after, with a stone, in the act 

 of eating a rabbit. It was a duller white than the 

 first, and the black was not so bright. When I first 

 saw the bird I thought it was a Seagull, as it was so 

 white." This description seems to indicate that the 

 species was the Greenland Falcon. 



In the autumn of 1877 a Greenland Falcon was 

 caught alive by a farmer, in a warren on the north- 

 west shore of the entrance of Lough Foyle. It had 

 gorged itself on a rabbit, and permitted a capture 

 to be made without difficulty. It was kept alive 

 for two or three days on raw beef, and then died, 

 when the skin was preserved, and subsequently for- 

 warded to Mr. Harting for identification. It is now 

 in the British Museum. 



Mr. Richards, of Barnagh, Belmullet, has an 

 Iceland Falcon preserved which was killed at 

 Tarmoncarra, in September 1879 ; an d another 

 Irish example of this bird, in immature plumage, 

 is in the possession of Dr. Burden, of Belfast. It 

 was obtained, in Donegal, by the late Mr. T. Gar- 

 rett, of Belfast, in August 1859. 



Amongst the smaller hawks, the KESTREL and 

 SPARROW-HAWK are generally distributed, the for- 

 mer being the most numerous. 



