FALCON I D.l': - Til K FALCOXS. 



117 



tlie li.i^ures of a ]>air of var. f/i/r/alro, l)y Wolf, in Newton's Oiitlieca Wolley- 

 lUKi, I can discover no dilference at all ; thus it would seem tluit our liinl 

 occa.sioiiidly closely upproaclies in tints and markings this race of Con- 

 tinentivl Europe, of which 1 have seen only one immature example, and no 

 adults. 



I cannot a<,M'ee with Mr. Xewton in considering the Gerfalcons of the 

 interior of Arctic America as identical witl; the Iceland form, though that 

 distinguished ornithologist considers them so in his paper in the rroceediugs 

 ot the Philadelphia Academy for July, 1871, busing his conclusion upon the 

 specimens from which the above descriptions were taken, which had been 

 sent over to England for comparison. 1 luive never yet seen a specimen of 

 i-'i/diif/tni.s wliich could not be distinguished, by the characters given in my 

 synopsis, from these examples, while they can be separated from that race 

 by the characters which Mr. Newton himself gives, in his diagnostic table in 

 the paper above cited, for distinguishing the adults of islandkus and gyr- 

 faho. 



The var. f^mrr is evidently separable from both idandkm and gyrfako, 

 and about as nuicii related to one as to the other ; combining the size and 

 ])roi)ortions of the former with the colors of the latter, while in the wide 

 amount of individual variation of plumage its ligiiter extreme approaches 

 one, wjiile its darkest phase approximates as closely to the average plum- 

 age of the other. 



Var. labradora, AuDUb^N. 

 BLACK GEBFALCON. 



Falm Inhrnflnm, Am. R. Am. \i[. c.xcvi, 18.31. 



Sp. CiiAii. Adult (9 lircMMling plumage: 30,375, Rigrolet, Labrador: Mr. ConoUy). 

 Groiiml-folor of the i)Uiina,iro uniforiii, very doop, cloar, dark pluinhi-ous-brown, con- 

 timiously uniloini above; larger scapulars, .secondaries, secondary covcrt.o, and primaries 

 moie dilute aloii- cd.u:( s, however, tli.} tint palest and broadest terminally. Tail perfectly 

 unilbrm. except at the end; tbe lip beinnf narrowly wl.itisli, and about half an inch 

 anterior to thi.s, a transver.se .scries of hidden irregular transverse creamy-white spots. 

 The head (except beneath) is unvariegated. Beneath, the dark tint inclines more to 

 blackish dove-brown, more dilute on the tibia-; feathers edged laterally with white, this 

 prevailing on the throat, but everywhere else far l.'.ss than the dusky in amount ; on the 

 tibiie and lower tail-coverts the white is in the form of irregidar spots. Anal region un- 

 v.iriegated; lining of the wing with circular spots of white along the outer webs of the 

 feathers. Under smface of primaries with plumbeous prevalent, but this crossed with 



