GYR-FALCON. 35 
volume of the Transactions of the Linnean Society, men- 
tion is made of a specimen that was shot on Bungay 
Common. By the kindness of Mr. Allis of York, I have 
heard that a very fine adult specimen was shot within a 
few miles of that city on the 15th March 1837. One of 
the specimens now in the Museum of Newcastle-upon- 
Tyne was killed in Northumberland; in the month of 
January of the present year, 1845, an Iceland Falcon was 
shot near the North Tyne. Pennant possessed one that 
was shot near Aberdeen. Mr. Low in his Fauna of Ork- 
ney, considered the Gyr-Falcon as only an occasional 
visitor: Mr. Bullock, when he visited the Orkneys, saw 
one sitting on a stone wall in the island of Stronsa; but its 
appearance has not been observed by more recent Ornitho- 
logists. As before mentioned, its true habitat appears to 
be in higher northern latitudes,—Norway, Iceland, Green- 
land, Siberia, Russia, and occasionally the north of Ger- 
many; but apparently in no country more plentiful than 
in North America. Dr. Richardson says, ‘“ We saw it 
often during our journeys over the Barren Grounds, where 
its habitual prey is the Ptarmigan, but where it also de- 
stroys Plover, Ducks, and Geese.” 
Major Sabine, in his Memoir on the Birds of Greenland, 
says, ‘‘ The progress of this bird from youth, when it is 
quite brown, to the almost perfect whiteness of its ma- 
turity, forms a succession of changes in which each indi- 
vidual feather gradually loses a portion of its brown co- 
lour as the white edging on the margin increases in breadth 
from year to year.” Dr. Richardson also, who has had 
favourable opportunities for observing this species at dif- 
ferent ages, says, “The young Gyr-Falcons show little 
white on their plumage, being mostly of a dull brown co- 
lour above. As they grow older, the white margins en- 
D2 
