110 Mr. J. Hancock on the Greenland and Iceland Falcons. 



I have very little doubt but that many more species of ants 

 will be discovered even in the southern portion of the Peninsula, 

 and I hope myself to add others to the present list, and more 

 especially to gain additional information on their habits, t i^bmr 



__ . _^- 



XI. — Note on the Greenland and Iceland Falcons. 



By John Hancock, Esq. ''^ 



Since the publication of my paper in 1838 on the Greenland 

 and Iceland Falcons, I have had the opportunity of examining a 

 great number of specimens of both species, and have found much 

 to corroborate the opinion I then expressed of the distinctness 

 of the two kinds. I must now have seen upwards of 150 spe- 

 cimens, and have had in my possession at one time no less than 

 seventy individuals. This extended experience enables me to 

 correct an error in the description of Falco Grcenlandicus. I 

 find that 1 have confounded the young with the adult of this 

 species, and am wrong regarding the immature. 



When I drew up my paper I considered all the white birds 

 from Greenland to be mature, describing the nest plumage from 

 a dark specimen, which having a white quill-feather coming, 

 seemed to prove that it was the young of this species. There is 

 now no doubt that this is wrong, and that this individual is 

 really an immature Iceland falcon, — the white quill-feather 

 being abnormal. 



The Greenland falcon is never dark like the young of the 

 other species ; in fact, the nest plumage of the former is always 

 whiter than the mature plumage of the latter, and is not unfre- 

 quently as white as that of the mature of its own species. 



The mature Greenland falcon is distinguished from the young, 

 not so much by its greater whiteness as by the character of the 

 markings, which on the back and scapulars are always cordate 

 inclining to sagittiform ; the head, under parts and tail are fre- 

 quently unspotted, but not by any means constantly so. The 

 young is characterized by having the upper parts marked with 

 large oblong spots, and the head and under parts with long nar- 

 row dashes. In both old and young the markings are of a dark 

 warm gray, almost black in the former, which is also distin- 

 guished by the cere, beak, feet and toes being of a pale yellow 

 or straw colour; while in the young, these parts, with the 

 exception of the beak, are of a light livid blue. Some of the 

 young are very white, so that they can be distinguished only by 

 the form of the spots and colour of the naked parts. In such 

 the spots or dashes on the head and under parts are reduced to 

 mere lines, scarcely wider than the shafts of the feathers, and 



