22 NORWEGIAN JER-FALCON. 
name they now bear, as in Holland there are several words composed 
in the same manner, as Gier, derived from the verb gieren, which in 
Dutch has many meanings, as " uttering shrill cries," "clawing or 
seizing objects," "flying or throwing oneself swiftly from side to side." 
In England the name used is Jer-Falcon, or simply Jer. 
The true Ger-Falcon has only been observed at present in the 
season of propagation on the Norwegian Alps. This is evidently the 
species which F. Boie met with in 1817, when travelling in Norway, 
and of which he relates that it leaves the mountains in winter, and 
accompanies the Ptarmigans, which are its principal food, in their 
migrations to the sea-shore. The Norwegians assured M. Boie that 
neither white nor whitish Falcons exist in their country, and we cannot 
therefore doubt but that the great Falcons of this country belong to 
this species of Ger-Falcon. M. Boie further adds that the young of 
the year leave the mountains in winter, and then visit the other parts 
of Sweden towards the south. The Falconers establish themselves 
always on the Dovrefeld, but they only take young birds of the 
year. In Holland, also, the Falconers take from time to time speci- 
mens of the young bird; from which we may conclude with Nillson, 
that the adults never go far from their habitual dwellings. Very 
little is known about the habits and propagation of this bird in its 
wild state. 
Mr. Wolley, Junr., writing in 1856, says in his "Catalogue of 
Eggs," sold by Mr. Stevens: — " Falco Gyr-falco of Schlegel is the 
true Gyr-Falcon at present so little generally known in England, 
though Schlegel says the young have occurred here, as they do con- 
stantly in Holland. In immature plumage the bird is scarcely to be 
distinguished from the immature Icelanders. Whether to be considered 
a distinct species or not, this Lapland, and, probably Siberian form, 
must be carefully separated from the Greenland and Iceland ones, 
which are so well known through the researches of Mr. Hancock. 
Schlegel, writing three or four years ago, says that nothing is known 
of its nidification; these eggs are therefore probably the first that 
have been seen by naturalists. Mr. Wolley, in 1854 and 1855, had 
the pleasure of taking four nests "with his own hands." It breeds 
in the most remote districts, commencing whilst the winter snow is 
still undiminished. The adult birds seem to confine themselves to 
the far north of the country, and they are the only species or race 
of the Great Falcon which occurs in Lapland." 
The following graphic account of Mr. Wolley 's first capture of the 
egg of Gyr-falco is taken from an admirable catalogue of his eggs 
(illustrated) by Professor Newton, I mean "Ootheca Wolleyana:" — 
