62 



JEB-FALCON. 



Falcn Islandicus, LATHAM. 



" Gyrfalco, LINNAEUS. 



Gyrfalco caridicans, FLEMING. 



Fako To cut with a bill or hook. Islandicus Of, or belonging 



to Iceland. 



I AM compelled to say 'not proven,' with reference to the 

 arguments of Mr. John Hancock, read before the British 

 Association at Newcastle, with a view to establish the sup- 

 position that two species are confounded together in the one 

 bird before us. It may, I think, be depended upon that the 

 white plumage is the token of advanced age, as the dusky 

 brown is of youth. The indentations on the bill are un- 

 questionably alterable, and as to the specific difference 

 endeavoured to be established from the bars on the tail, both 

 the varietie*^ have been found in one and the same individual 

 specimen. 



This noble bird may well be regarded as the personification 

 of the 'beau ideal' of the true Falcons, at the head of which 

 it pre-eminently stands. Its courageous spirit, together with 

 its rarity even in its native countries, and the difficulty of 

 procuring it, made it highly estimated in the days of falconry, 

 as it was qualified and disposed to fly at the larger kinds 

 of the 'game' of those days, such as herons and cranes. Its 

 education was indeed difficult, but it was sure to repay the 

 patience and perseverance required for training it for the 

 aristocratic pastime, so highly thought of in the olden times. 



I am indebted to J. Me Intosh, Esq., of Milton Abbey, 

 Dorsetshire, for a quaint old treatise on the subject of Hawking, 

 as one of other former 'countrey contentments,' but I am 

 obliged, against my will, to omit much which I should be glad, 

 if space permitted, to insert. My thanks however are not the 

 less due to him, and other obliging correspondents. 



