2820 The Zoologist — November, 1871. 



of the same sex, and in the same Museum, is 5.06383 in. This would at 

 once show that the Icelander has the longer body of the two, by nearly half 

 an inch ; but the difference becomes moi-e striking when it is found that the 

 breadth of the sternal apparatus does not vary in accordance with its length, 

 being occasionally absolutely broadest in the gyr-falcon ; and further, that 

 the disproportion is chiefly caused by the elongation of the coracoid bones 

 in the Icelander, where the sternum alone has an average length of 

 3.65008 in., against 3.47143 in. as in the true gyr-falcon. As a constant 

 inhabitant of Europe, the Iceland falcon is only known in the island whence 

 it takes its name, and is there by no means uncommon, breeding in pre- 

 cipitous cliffs or ranges of rock bordering the numerous lakes, which are 

 thronged during the summer by innumerable water-fowl, and thereby 

 securing a plentiful supply of food for its offspring, though it is stated that 

 ptarmigans form the chief prey of the adults and such of the young as pass 

 the winter in that country, when it is comparatively deserted by aquatic 

 birds. Most of the young, however, wander southward at that season, and 

 examples annually visit the Faros, Norway, Denmark, Germany and 

 Holland. In the British Islands more probably have occurred than is the 

 case with the Greenland falcon, but of the many so-called ' gyr- falcons ' 

 recoi'ded as seen or taken here, the number which can be with certainty 

 determined to be Icelanders is perhaps rather fewer — possibly the less 

 conspicuous plumage of the latter does not attract so much attention. In 

 the Shetlands Dr. Saxby states that, though formerly a regular visitor, it is 

 now only occasionally seen. Mr. Robert Gray says tliat, between 1835 and 

 1851, several were shot in the northern counties of Scotland, and that 

 within the last four yeai-s ho is satisfied that four or five have been killed in 

 the western parts of that kingdom. An Iceland falcon, which had for some 

 time haunted a farm-yard, preying on the poultry, was shot on Vallay, one 

 of the Outer Hebrides, in September, 1805. This bird is in the collection 

 of Dr. Dewar, of Glasgow. Another, a fine male, was shot in the October 

 of the preceding year iu North Uist, and a third was about the same time 

 washed ashore on the west side of that island. Mr. Gray also learned from 

 Mr. Elwes that a fourth was shot on May, and mentions one that was 

 trapped in 1806 at Gleudaruel, in Argyllshire. As regards England, 

 Thompson quotes from a letter of Mr. Hancock's the occurrence of a young 

 bird at Bellingham, on the North Tyue, in January, 1845, which was then 

 in the collection of Mr. Charles Adamson, of Newcastle ; and this capture 

 is also recorded by Mr. Bold, in 'The Zoologist' for that year. The same 

 letter also notices an Iceland falcon, in its first plumage, killed at Nor- 

 mauby, near Guisborough, iu Yorkshire, iu March, 1837, of which a brief 

 description, by the late Mr. Hogg, appeared in the volume of the useful 

 periodical just mentioned. Both these birds are now in Mr. Hancock's 

 collection. ]\Jr. Borrer possesses an adult Iceland falcon shot at Mayfield, 



