138 British Birds, with their Nests and Eggs 



tlic nest, which is said to be placed on a ledge of rock, either a cliff overlooking 

 llu- sea or inland, and sometimes on the top of a pine or some other tree, and is 

 bnilt of twigs and small branches, and lined with moss, deers' hairs, feathers, or 

 sea weeds. The eggs, laid in May or June, are usually four, sometimes only 

 three ; they are considerably larger than those of the Peregrine, measuring from 

 2"4 to 2"2 inches, by from I'g to i'8 inches. The ground colour is creamy white, 

 close]}' freckled over with orange-brown, rich reddish-broAvn, and brick-red. Some 

 closely resemble typical Hobby's eggs ; others are like certain varieties of the 

 Peregrine. A beautiful variety described by Seebohm was mottled all over with 

 pale rosy-pink shell markings, intermixed with pale reddish-brown blotches and 

 spots on a creamy white ground. The shell is rather rough, and without gloss. 

 The eggs vary much in size and form. In a clutch of three in the writer's 

 cabinet, taken May 21st, 1894, at Sakkertappen, in Greenland, one is elongated, 

 while the other two are subovate. 



Lord Lilford writes: — "to the eye of a Falconer there is a peculiar 'make' 

 and character about the Greenland Falcon that are quite sufficient to enable him 

 to identif}- her, even if she were jet black," adding that, in captivity, according 

 to his experience this species is " extremely docile, and a very fine and powerful 

 flj'er and stooper, but what we call in falconry a poor ' footer,' that is, it is not 

 able, or more probably not disposed, to bind to and grasp its quarry firmly ; it is 

 also b}' no means hard}- of constitution, and is difficult to keep in good condition 

 for field purposes." In his beautiful coloured figures of British Birds he gives 

 the portrait of a very fine adult female, " one of the tamest Falcons that I ever 

 knew," that was at the time in his aviaries. 



The home of the Greenland Falcon is in the northern parts of Greenland, in 

 Arctic America, from Baffin's Ba}- to Alaska, probably also in North Siberia. 



In the colours of its plumage it closely corresponds with the Snowy Owl, 

 from its earliest youth the ground colour is white. Very old birds become almost 

 pure white all over, with some of the feathers on the back and upper surface of 

 the wings tipped with black ; tail pure white. There are darker birds which have 

 the tail barred with black, and with more black markings on the upper parts. In 

 immature birds the markings are not black but sooty brown, and are longitudinal 

 instead of transverse, and are tear shaped on the breast, and the tail is barred. 

 In young birds the cere, beak, and legs are horn blue ; in the adults they are 

 pale yellow ; claws light horn ; irides hazel. Young birds attain their full 

 plumage in their second year. 



Length of male 21 inches, of female 23 inches. 



