146 NATURAL HISTORY COLLECTIONS IN ALASKA. 



of his vessel off the coast of Kamchatka and north of Bering Islands. This bird remaiued with 

 them mauy hours and finally left for the adjoining coast. It is apparently found merely as a 

 straggler in the northern portion of the Territory and across the entire northern part of North 

 America. During several springs a few birds were seen passing over just as the sun began to 

 melt the snow from the tundra and the hardiest migrant birds were returning. The loud notes of 

 the Ptarmigan are now heard rising for the first time from the hill-sides, and doubtless serve 

 as the signal which sends this handsome hawk back to its summer haunts. The natives told me 

 that these White Hawks sometimes breed on the mountains of the Kaviak Peninsula ; but I had no 

 means of verifying this statement, although my solitary specimen came from there. Kumlien found 

 it very rare on the Cumberland Gulf side of Davis Strait and much more numerous on the Green- 

 laud shore. He notes that it is apparently much slower on the wing than the common Duck 

 Hawk, and also that it was seen pursuing the gulls until they were exhausted before the hawk 

 could secure its prey, thus showing that their endurance exceeds their speed. 



Falco rustioolus gyrpalco (Linn.). Gyrfalcon (Esk. Chi-lcHtJv-iulc jnv.; Kd- 

 gokUttilc, ad.). 



Throughout all Alaska, from the Aleutian Islands north, both along the coast and through 

 the interior, extending from Bering Straits across the northern portion of British America, the 

 present falcon is the commonest resident bird of prey. It was observed by Murdoch at Point 

 Barrow, though it was not common. It frequents the vicinity of cliffs and rocky points about the 

 sea coast, or the rocky ravines of the interior, during the breeding season, and the remainder 

 of the year, especially in fall, it is found wandering over the country everywhere that food can 

 be obtained ; it is especially numerous during the migration of the Ptarmigan along the seacoast. 

 It is less numerous on the; Aleutian and other islands in Bering Sea than elsewhere, and there is 

 but a single record of this species from the Eur Seal Islands, where Elliott obtained a specimen 

 on Saint Paul's in March, 1873. This is an immature biixl iu the streaked plumage. 



The young are much more abundant throughout its range than the adults, and from six to 

 eight of the former were secured to one of the latter. The young from Alaska form a pretty 

 uniform series, with but a comparatively small amount of variation for this extremely poly- 

 morphic species. The specimen obtained on the Seal Islands by Elliott, is larger and paler than 

 the average Alaskan birds, and thus approaches nearer the young of the form known as island- 

 iciis. The adults secured on the shores of Norton Sound vary iu the amount of spotting on the 

 abdominal surface and in the shape and size of these spots. On the back they also vary from a 

 condition in which the entire surface is washed heavily with ashy-blue, and the light cross-barring 

 of the feathers is nearly obsolete, to one in which the cross-bars are well marked and of dull 

 yellowish-white. In a series of skins of this species, from various parts of its range, there is 

 found an interminable gradation from the whitest islandus to the darkest gyrfalco and rusticolus. 

 Specimens in the National Museum collection from Greenland show the widest extremes, which are 

 bridged by connecting specimens, so that it is impossible to definitely separate them. The young 

 retain their streaked plumage until the second fall, as is stated by Newton in the Proceedings of 

 the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences, 1871, pp. 96, 97. This author's separation of 

 gyrfalco from islandmis on the assumption that the head is lighter than the back in one and uni- 

 form with the back in the other rests upon a purely individual character, as is shown by my 

 Alaskan series. 



In Greenland Holboll found the young of islandus moulting throughout the winter; but none 

 of my winter specimens show signs of moulting, and the young specimens in my collection taken in 

 April and May, still in a striped condition, show no sign of change. Macfarlane found numerous 

 nests of this bird on the Anderson River, nearly all of which were placed in trees, and the eggs 

 were laid iu May, the earliest being upon the 10th. Along the sea-coast in the vicinity of Saint 

 Michaels it breeds rarely, choosing rocky cliffs facing the sea. Along the Lower Ynkon and Kus- 

 koquiui Rivers in winter it is numerous, and finds an abundance of Ptarmigan, upon which it preys. 

 At this season it is frequently seen perching on a stout branch of a tree overhanging the river 

 bank, and I have seen it on several occasions allow a train of dog-sledges to pass within 40 or 50 



