ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. 25 



graphic art can supply, they cannot be regaKled as a very valuable addition 

 to the work, certainly not in proportion to their cost. They do not sup- 

 ply those shades of tinting so essential to the student, and, being neces- 

 sarily taken from mounted specimens, cannot remedy the inevitable short- 

 comings of their models. The text, which is largely compiled from the 

 notes of other writers, gives -a fairly digested summary of the individual 

 history of each species. 



Mr. Vennor includes two forms of Gyr-falcons, the candicans and 

 the labradora of Audubon, but adds nothing of moment to our knowl- 

 edge of the history of the former, and does not include, except inferen- 

 tially, Hierofalco islandicus as among the birds of Catiada. He gives, as a 

 separate form, the dark Gyr-falcon, described by Audubon as labradora 

 but he is mistaken in several of his statements in regard to this variety. 

 It is probably not so very rare a bird as has been supposed, although it is 

 little known in North American collections. The supposition that the 

 two specimens in the Montreal Museum ate the only ones known in all 

 North America is incorrect Mr. Boardman of St. Stephen possesses at 

 least two very fine specimens, the Boston Museum has a very fine one, and 

 there is at least one in the National Museum oi Washington. Nor is Mr. 

 Vennor the first to represent, in plate, this species (or variety ?). 

 , In the "Ornithological Miscellany," edited by Mr. George '^ Dawson 

 Kowley, and published by Trubner & Co., of London^ Mr. Henry E. 

 Dresser pre=«ented a vnry interesting memoir of this Hawk, accompanied 

 with a very fine illustration, I am not aware that any copy of this work 

 is in this country, and the writer can only refer to it from memory. From 

 this it would appear that for several yeaia past collections of skins received 

 in Europe from Labrador have always contained skins of this bird. One 

 of the museums of Germany was especially fortunate in securing a fine 

 series of this bird, and Mr. Dresser, having learned the source from which 

 it had been enriched, has himself since procured several very fine specimens. 

 So far as is known it seems to be confined to Labrador, and its specific 

 peculiarities, if it has any, are not publicly known. At present we know 

 too little in regard to it to discuss the question whether it is to be regarded 

 as a species or a race, or whether it may not be a melanistic form. It is 

 much more distinct, in its external markings, from any of the three other 

 forma, gyrfalco, islandicus, and candiccins than they are from one another, 

 and, so far as is known, there is much less variation in the markings of 

 individuals. The writer has no doubt that the birds referred to (North 

 American Birds, Vol. Ill, p. 311), under the supposition that, they be- 

 longed to the Black Rough-legged Hawks, were really of this group. 



In this connection it maybe mentioned that Mr. Dresser refers the 

 form of Hierofalco found on Anderson Eiver, not to H.' candicans, but to 

 the more common Norway form of H. gyrfalco". — T. M. B 



