(1 4976" *) 
ICELAND OR JER FALCON. 
FALCO ISLANDICUs, Latu. 
PLATE CCCLXVI. Apnuttr Femate. 
Tue figures of the adult female of this superb Falcon now before 
you were taken from the bird described by Mr Jonn Herrenstatt, at 
page 554 of the second volume of this work. It was kept by him 
upwards of six years; and it was his intention to have sent it to me 
alive from Sheffield ; but it died of an affection of the cesophagus, 
which had for some days rendered it unable to swallow its food. My 
kind and most worthy friend, however, sent it to me immediately, so 
that after having received it in good condition, I was enabled not only 
to make it the subject of the present plate, and to take accurate mea- 
surements of all its parts, but also to institute a comparison between it 
and one of the specimens obtained in Labrador, which, with its con- 
sort, is represented in Plate CXCVI. 
In all essential respects it agrees with the Labrador bird. The 
festoon on the edge of the lower mandible is however more prominent, 
and on the other hand, the tooth which is prominent in the young 
bird from Labrador, is in the old Iceland bird broken off and worn 
on both sides. In like manner, several of the claws, which are larger 
and stronger in this individual, are worn and blunted. These are the 
accidents of domestication or long use, and shew that no dependence can 
be placed on the prominence of either the festoon or the tooth of the bill 
as indicating a difference of species. The tarsi, toes, their scales and 
scutella, are the same as in the Labrador specimen. The wing, how- 
ever, is more pointed, although the feathers are of the same form ; but 
this arises from the first quill of the Labrador bird not having com- 
pleted its growth, as both it and some of the other quills are still 
sheathed at the base. In Mr Herrenstatt’s bird the second quill is 
longest, the third very little shorter, and the first nearly as long, and 
three quarters of an inch longer than the fourth. The tail is slightly 
rounded, as in the Labrador bird, the lateral feathers being three quar- 
ters of an inch shorter than the longest, and the feathers are similarly 
though less distinctly pointed, they having been considerably worn. 
i‘ 
od 
ue” 
Ps. 
1 
_ 
