2 FALCONIDJE. 



FAMILY II. FALCONID^E (FALCONS). 



GENUS II. FALCO (FALCON). 

 SPECIES 2 THE GYR FALCON. 



Falco gyrfalco. Linn. 



Faucon gerfaut. Temm. 



Gerfalcon. Greenland Falcon. Norwegian Falcon. 



THE GYR, the largest and most powerful of the falcons, is a 

 species very unusual in its occurrence in our Fauna. Of great 

 beauty in the plumage of the adult, but two instances have 

 occurred in Ireland : the first specimen,* shot in the county 

 of Donegal, when on wing above a rabbit warren ; and the 

 second by the gamekeeper of Lord Gormanstown, on the 

 estate near Drogheda, in the winter of 1851. Of equal 

 rarity in the plumage of the immature bird, two specimens 

 have also been obtained, one in the north of Ireland, and 

 the other, a male bird,f shot at Ballina, county of Mayo, by 

 C. Knox, Esq., towards the end of December, 1847 ; the 

 light blue tarsi of which offered a curious contrast with the 

 usual yellowish colour observable in the other falcons. A 

 native of northern latitudes, the true habitat of this falcon 

 is around the precipices that fringe the coasts of Greenland 

 and Norway, where, breeding in remote and inaccessible eyries, 

 it finds a constant supply of food amidst the countless multi- 

 tudes of sea-fowl which frequent these shores during summer 

 for the purposes of incubation. Possessing the greatest cou- 

 rage, we see the admirable compactness of form, great sweep 

 of wing, and talons of corresponding size and strength, which 

 have placed the gyr as the most powerful of the family it 

 belongs to. 



The most prized and valued of the many hawks which 

 during the middle ages furnished such a source of amusement 

 to the high and princely : to obtain its earliest notice we must 

 retrograde in thought to that period when the hands of their 

 feudal possessors replaced for a time the sword and gauntlet 

 with the glove and falcon. Protected by laws, and offering 

 equal attractions to the Court as to the Church, the king 

 waived the routine of Court ceremony to enjoy the flight of 

 some favourite falcon, whilst the mitred prelate thundered 

 from the pulpit against the hawk-stealers who had invaded 



* Thompson. t In the author's collection. 



