lO CLARKE : THE BIRDS OF YORKSHIRE. 



FALCO ISLANDUS J. F. Gmelin. 

 Iceland Falcon. 



A rare and accidental visitant. 



As stated in my remarks on the Greenland Falcon there are 

 five instances of this species having occurred in Yorkshire. 



The first was shot about the middle of March in the year 

 1837 on the moors near Guisborough, as recorded by Mr. John 

 Hogg, F.R.S., in his catalogue of the Birds of S. E. Durham and 

 N. E. Cleveland (Zoologist, 1845, p. 1052). It is there described 

 as "a young bird, having all the upper parts of a brown ash-colour, 

 the white occurring on the edges of the feathers. The under 

 parts white, with large longitudinal brown spots." This specimen 

 is referred to as being in its first year's plumage, and in the 

 collection of Mr. John Hancock, in a letter addressed by him to 

 Mr. Wm. Thompson (Natural History of Ireland ; Birds, i. 32.) 



In the collection of Mr. C. C. Oxley of Ripon is a fine speci- 

 men of the Iceland Falcon, which is said to have been shot on 

 Marston Moor, in December 1826 or 1836. This bird was 

 purchased by Mr. Oxley at the sale of the collection of the late 

 Dr. Hobson of Leeds. 



The third occurrence was in November i860, when a fine 

 young female was shot at Upper Poppleton, near York, as men- 

 tioned in the Zoologist (1861, p. 7312) by Mr. David Graham of 

 York, by whom the bird was purchased for five shillings. This 

 bird is now in the collection of Mr. A. Clapham, of Scarborough, 

 who possesses not a few Yorkshire rarities, and who has also been 

 at considerable trouble in furnishing valuable information and 

 replying to my numerous enquiries. 



The fourth specimen is also in Mr. Clapham's collection : it 

 was shot by Mr. Lorrimer on Filey Brigg, on the 4th of October 

 1864, while in company with another of the same species, which 

 escaped. This specimen for some time proved a puzzle to Mr. 

 Clapham's friends, who thought it to be a young Peregrine. 

 At length it was submitted to Mr. H. E. Dresser, author of 

 the "Birds of Europe," for his opinion; in a letter from that 



Trans Y.N.U., 1879. Series B 



