GOS-HAWK. 85 



doubt, did in Forfarshire, Stirling, Moray and Sutherland. 

 The same author also quotes evidence from the ' Liber de 

 Melros,' which seems to shew that in the thirteenth century 

 it regularly bred on the Border. Colonel Thornton, when 

 in Scotland, had a nestling sent to him from the forest of 

 Rothiemurcus, and saw some eyries both there and in Glen- 

 more. Hence it is not unreasonable to suppose that, in 

 the days when large forests of Scotch-firs flourished natur- 

 ally in that kingdom, it inhabited the districts so occupied ; 

 still there can be no doubt that considerable confusion has 

 arisen from the fact that in several places its common name 

 has been and yet is applied to the Peregrine Falcon, and 

 hence some caution must be used in accepting all the testi- 

 mony as to its former abundance in this country. The 

 Falcon Gentil of Pennant, as has already been said (p. 56), 

 is the present species, which under that name he describes 

 and twice figures, mistaking the second for the first plumage 

 and the converse. In Ireland it seems to have occurred very 

 seldom. Thompson was unable to include it with certainty as 

 a bird of that island, but Mr. Watters records the occurrence 

 of a male in the county Longford in 1846, and lately one was 

 observed in county Wicklow by Mr. A. Basil Brooke (Zool. 

 B.S. p. 2283). 



On the continent of Europe the Gos-Hawk is very generally 

 distributed, being most plentiful in Germany. It is far from 

 uncommon in Lapland, where it breeds as far north as the 

 trees attain any size, and a representation of its nest is given 

 in the ' Ootheca Wolleyana.' It inhabits nearly the whole 

 of the Russian Empire, reaching to Kamtchatka : many indi- 

 viduals from those far eastern regions, as also, to some extent, 

 those from Southern Russia, being paler in colour and some 

 almost perfectly white, these last being highly valued for 

 Falconry. In China Mr. Swinhoe saw it used for hawking 

 near Pekin. It inhabits and breeds in the Himalayas, and 

 occurs in winter on the plains of the Punjaub. De Filippi 

 noticed it in Persia. In Palestine it seems to be rare, and 

 not found south of the Lebanon. It is recorded from Egypt 

 by Savigny and Riippell, as well as by Captain Shelley, but 



