34 FALCONIDA. 
very similar in shape and colour, as well as in the mode m 
which the colour is disposed over the surface. 
These birds defend their young with great courage and 
perseverance. Dr. Richardson says, “In the middle of 
June 1821, a pair of these birds attacked me as I was 
climbing in the vicinity of their nest, which was built 
on a lofty precipice on the borders of Point Lake, in 
latitude 653°. They flew in circles, uttering loud and 
harsh screams, and alternately stoopmg with such velocity, 
that their motion through the air produced a loud rushing 
noise: they struck their claws within an inch or two of 
my head. I endeavoured by keeping the barrel of my 
gun close to my cheek, and suddenly elevating its muzzle 
when they were in the act of striking, to ascertain whether 
they had the power of instantaneously changing the direc- 
tion of their rapid course, and found that they invariably 
rose above the obstacle with the quickness of thought, 
showing equal acuteness of vision and power of motion. 
Although their flight was much more rapid, they bore 
considerable resemblance to the Snowy Owl.” 
This species appears but very seldom in the southern 
parts of the British Islands. Dr. Edward Moore of Ply- 
mouth has recorded a notice of one taken in Devonshire 
so lately as the year 1834. Dr. Borlase, in his History 
of Cornwall, refers to the occurrence of one at Helston. 
The bird from which the representation here given was 
made, was killed in Pembrokeshire, on the estate of the 
Earl of Cawdor, by whom the specimen was presented to 
the Zoological Society. In Ireland, Mr. Thompson has 
noticed two occurrences of the Gyr-Falcon: one in 1803 
and another in 1837. 
In a Catalogue of the Birds of Norfolk and Suffolk, by 
Messrs. Sheppard and Whitear, published in the fifteenth 
