BRITISH BIRDS. 



THE GREENLAND FALCON.* 

 (Falco Grcenlandicus, Linnaeus. Hancock.) 



THIS is a very elegant species ; length of the- 

 male twenty-one inches, of the female two feet 

 three inches. The bill is much hooked, and yel- 

 low ; iris dusky ; throat white, as is likewise the 

 general colour of the plumage, but spotted with 

 brown ; the breast and belly in some are marked 

 with lines, pointing downwards ; the spots on the 



* This bird and the Iceland, or Jer-Falcon, were considered as 

 one species, until they were separated by Mr. John Hancock, who 

 pointed out their characteristic features in a paper read in the 

 Natural History Section of the British Association, at their Meeting 

 in Newcastle, in 1838, and afterwards published in the Annals of 

 Natural History, vol. 2., page 241. 



