%i6 ICELAND FALCON. 



PJ'*^*> Is found in many parts of Europe, but not in Scandinavia : is fre- 



quent in Ruffia and Sibiria, and extends even to Kamtjchatka. Is lefs 

 generous and fpirited than other Eagles ; and is perpetually making 

 a plaintive noife, from which it was ftyled by the antients Planga 

 £s' Clafiga ; and Anataria, from its preying on Ducks, which Pliny * 

 defcribes with great elegance. The Arabs ufed to train it for the 

 chace -, but its quarry was Cranes, and other birds : the more 

 o-enerous Eagle being flown at Antelopes, and various quadrupeds. 

 This fpecies was even itfelf an objeft of diverfion ; and made the 

 game of even fo fmall a Falcon as the Sparrow Hawk: which would 

 purfue it with great eagernefs, foar above, then fall on the Eagle, 

 and, fattening with its talons, keep beating it about the head with its 

 wings, till they both fell together to the ground. This Sir John 

 Char din has feen praftifed about Tauris. 



D. Iceland Falcon, Gent. Mag. 1771, p. 297, fig^good. 

 Falco IflandusFufcus, Brunnick, z, N° 9. 

 Le Gerfdult d'Ifland, Brijpm, i. 373, tab. xxxi. — PI. E«l. 210. 



Faico Gyrfalco, Lin. Syjf. 1^0.— Faun. Suec. N" 64. — Latham, i. 82, N" 68 ; and 71, 

 N° 50 B. parag. 2d, — Lsv. Mus. 



"Cp With a ftrong bill, much hooked, and the upper mandible 

 fliarply angulated on the lower edges j cere bluifli : head of a 

 very pale ruft-color, ftreaked downwards with duflcy lines ; neck, 

 breaft, and belly, white, marked with cordated fpots : thighs white, 

 crofled with fhort bars of deep brown : back and coverts of wings 

 dufky, fpotted and edged with white : the exterior webs of the pri- 

 maries d'ufky, mottled with reddilh white ; the inner barred with 

 white : the feathers of the tail crofled with fourteen or more narrow 

 bars of dufl<y and white ; the duflcy bars regularly oppofing thofe of 

 white : the wings, when clofed, reach almoft to the end of the train : 

 legs ftrong and yellow. The Length of the wing) from the pinion 

 to the tip, fixteen inches. 



• Lib, X. c. 3« 



This 



