The Iceland Falcon. 139 



Familv—FA L CONID/K. 



Iceland Falcon. 



Falco isiaiidus, GmKL. 



THIS is a somewhat larger and stouter bird llian the preceding species, with 

 a shorter tail in proportion, longer wings, and larger liead ; it is also darker 

 in plumage. It receives its name from its being a nesting bird in Iceland ; it is 

 also found in South Greenland, whence it wanders to the north of Europe, and it 

 occurs on the eastern side of North America. 



Like the Greenland Falcon the Iceland Falcon has also been noted more 

 frequentl}^ in Scotland and its Islands than anywhere else in the kingdom. Dr. 

 Saxby reports that, in former days, it was almost a regular winter visitor to the 

 Shetland Isles, to Unst especiall}^ ; and was usuall}? seen after a snow storm 

 accompanied by a heavy gale. Robert Gray states that between 1835 ^^<^ 185 1, 

 several specimens were shot in the counties of Ross, Sutherland, and Inverness ; 

 "and within the last four 37ears I have satisfied myself that four or five have been 

 shot in the Avest of Scotland." He also mentions others obtained in the Hebrides. 

 Harvie-Brown knew of two in the county of Caithness. In England, the Iceland 

 Falcon has been reported from Northumberland, Yorkshire, and Sussex, in single 

 instances. It has also been obtained in the Channel Islands. In Januar}-, 1895, 

 Messrs. Pratt, of Brighton, received one that had been shot in the Scill}- Isles, 

 and a few weeks later one was killed in Breconshire, and recorded in the Field. 

 But as both Greenland and Iceland Falcons are occasionall}' brought alive to this 

 country in whaling ships returning from the Polar regions, and command a high 

 price from falconers, it is not unlikel}- that some of the instances given above 

 may have been escapes. Thus, in Januaiy 1870, a fine 3-oung female Icelander, 

 caught among some sedges in the parish of St. Merryn, near Padstow, and recorded 

 at the time by Mr. E. H. Rodd in the Zoologist, proved to be, without an}- doubt, 

 as that gentleman was informed b}' Major Fisher, the well-known Falconer, of the 

 Castle, Stroud, an escaped bird from Cardiff, where a number of Iceland Falcons, 

 recently imported from Iceland, were at that time kept and floA\-n. An Iceland 

 Falcon has also been reported from the neighbourhood of Plymouth. 



" From having kept some of all the three Northern Falcons in captivit}'," 



