4170 The Zoologist — October, 1874. 



Dr. Saxby writes very modestly on what he has done in reference 

 to the Iceland falcon : — " Those who have taken the trouble to read 

 my scattered notes on the Iceland falcon will agree with me in 

 considering it rather fortunate than otherwise that my acquaintance 

 with that species and the Greenland falcon had been comparatively 

 slight, otherwise the confusion I assisted in promoting would have 

 received a yet greater addition." When men of science thus per- 

 ceive and appreciate their own shortcomings, it is a sure sign they 

 may be taken as safe guides : this proof of their possessing the true 

 knowledge of self is a guarantee that their communications will be 

 instructive, a sign that they have eschewed the apocryphal and the 

 untenable ; and I appreciate far more highly the volume before me 

 from its containing such manly confessions. In the next paragraph 

 we find an interesting and valuable hint on the disposition of the 

 bars on the tail-feathers of this and other birds, and the statement 

 of a fact I have not previously met with, that the feathers on the 

 two sides of the tail are not necessarily similar. " It has been 

 considered remarkable and somewhat suspicious," says Dr. Saxby, 

 " that in both birds the markings on one side, do not always 

 correspond with those on the other, but the same is the case with 

 the snowy owl, and would be far more frequently found to occur 

 with many other species were it not the almost invariable custom 

 to examine one side only of the bird." Then follows a note on the 

 habits of the Greenland falcon, which is both interesting and 

 instructive. 



*' The Greenland falcon should perhaps be considered impetuous rather 

 than bold. It may often be seen dashing past dovecots and roofs of houses 

 in the vain attempt to cause the pigeons to take wing. I have observed it 

 equally unsuccessful in its endeavours to drive them from the top of a corn- 

 stack far distant from home. They merely crouch the closer, waiting for an 

 opportunity of making their escape. Upon one of these occasions the falcon, 

 giving up the attempt, had flown seawards, disappearing from our sight 

 immediately afterwards. Then the terrified pigeons, rising one or two at a 

 time from their crouching position, began to look about them, and gradually 

 recovering from their alarm, made off in a body for the dovecot, about 

 500 yards distant. Scarcely had they got fairly uuder way, when, to my 

 astonishment, one of their number fell headlong to the earth, some distance 

 in front of me, with such force as fairly to ricochet along the surface, the 

 feathers flying in all directions. On running up I found it quite dead, with 

 a deep gash the whole length of the back. On looking for the falcon, it 



