66 Falconidce. 



poor; and another, a very fine one, was killed at Brinkworth, 

 near Malmesbury, in August, 1852. I also learn from Mr. 

 Stratton that two were killed some years ago in the neighbour- 

 hood of Warminster ; and in the summer of 1856 a fine male 

 specimen, now in the collection of Mr. Rawlence, of Wilton, was 

 caught at Longleat by means of a spring trap set under water 

 and baited with a large trout. On October 16th, 1872, as I 

 learnt from the Field, since corroborated by the keeper, a fine 

 Osprey was shot at Fonthill, which measured four feet nine inches 

 across the wings. On October 19th, 1881, two Ospreys were 

 killed at Seend, one of which came into the possession of Mr. 

 Penruddocke, of that place, and was preserved by Mr. Grant, of 

 Devizes. It was a large specimen, and measured across the ex- 

 tended wings four feet eight inches ; length, one foot eight inches ; 

 weight, three and a half pounds. And on October 14th, 1882, two 

 others were killed at Wilton Park, as I was informed by Mr. 

 Swayne, of that town, who also called my attention to the re- 

 markable coincidence of two Ospreys having been killed in the 

 same park just one hundred years previously, as recorded in the 

 Salisbury Journal of October 14th, 1782. And the last whose 

 capture in this county I have to record, was a fine specimen, shot 

 by the keeper at ' The Broad/ Ramsbury, on September 26th, 1883, 

 as Sir F. Burdett kindly informed me, and is preserved at the 

 Manor House. 



3. THE GYR-FALCON (Falco gyrfalco). 



Such was the specific name by which all the magnificent white 

 falcons were known, which occasionally visited Great Britain, until 

 Mr. John Hancock, after comparing more than 150 specimens 

 some of which may be remembered as a splendid group in the 

 First Great Exhibition of 1851 came to the conviction, which has 

 since been adopted by most of the leading ornithologists of Europe, 

 that there are three distinct species bearing this title, two of which 

 are known to have occurred in Britain, viz., the ' Greenland falcon ' 

 (Falco candicans), and the ' Iceland falcon ' (Falco islandus). 

 The former is the whitest of the two, the ground-colour of each 



