BIRDS OF GUERNSEY. 5 



3. GREENLAND FALCON. Falco candicans, Gmelin. 

 I was much surprised on my last visit to Alderney, 

 on the 27th of June, 1878, on going into a small 

 carpenter's shop in the town, whose owner, besides 

 being a carpenter, is also an amateur bird-stuffer, 

 though of the roughest description, to find, amongst 

 the dust of his shop, not only the Purple Heron, 

 which I went especially to see, and which is men- 

 tioned afterwards, but a young Greenland Falcon 

 which he informed me had been shot in that island 

 about eighteen months ago. This statement was 

 afterwards confirmed by the person who shot the 

 bird, who was sent for and came in whilst I was 

 still in the shop. Unfortunately, neither the car- 

 penter nor his friend who shot the bird had made 

 any note of the date, and could only remember that 

 the one had shot the bird in that Island about 

 eighteen months ago and the other had stuffed it 

 immediately after. This would bring it to the 

 winter of 1876-77, or, more probably, the late 

 autumn of 1876. In the course of conversation it 

 appeared to me that the Snow Falcon as they 

 called this bird was not entirely unknown to the 

 carpenter or his friend, though neither could 

 remember at the time another instance of one 

 having been killed in that Island. It is, however, 

 by no means improbable that either this species or 

 the next mentioned, or both, may have occurred in 

 the Islands before, as Professor Ansted, though he 



