FALCO LABRADORUS. 187 



' Ornithological Biography,' and the octavo edition of his ' Birds of America,' 

 he refers to it under the name of Falco islandicus, believing that the specimens 

 obtained by him in Labrador, and figured (/. c), were merely dark specimens 

 of the Iceland Falcon in immature dress ; and as such the species has been 

 referred to by almost all American authors ; for the Labrador Falcon is 

 referred to neither in Baird, Cassin, and Lawrence's ' Birds of North 

 America' nor in Dr. Elliott Coues's 'Key,' though Mr. Ridgway carefully 

 discriminates it in the recently issued work on the birds of North America 

 (' North-American Birds,' vol. iii. p. 115), and gives most accurate descrip- 

 tions of the specimens in the Smithsonian Institution ; but he treats of it 

 as merely a variety of the Jerfalcon. Mr. Sharpe also (/. c.) lacked the 

 necessary materials to enable him to discriminate the present species, and 

 treated of it as a variety or the immature of the Norwegian Jerfalcon. I 

 must confess that when I first saw a specimen I believed that it was only a 

 young melanistic variety of the Iceland Falcon (Faico islandus) ; but when in 

 Brunswick in 1873 I had an opportunity of seeing and examining the rich 

 series in the museum of that town, and then convinced myself, without the 

 shadow of a doubt, that it is a perfectly distinct species, and, I should judge, 

 is more closely allied to the true Jerfalcon (R gyrfalcd) than to any other of 

 the Jerfalcons, as the immature bird is lighter in colour and markings than 

 the adult or very old bird. Directly I saw the series of specimens at 

 Brunswick I used every endeavour to obtain one for my own collection, and 

 have been fortunate enough to procure three, one of which is extremely dark 

 and has the upper parts almost uniform in colour. This bird is the specimen 

 figured on one Plate, that on the second Plate being what I take to be the 

 youngest of the three examples. 



Nothing appears to be known respecting the range and habits of the 

 present species, beyond what was published by Audubon and has been more 

 recently given by Mr. Ridgway in the work on North-American birds on 

 which he has, with Professor Baird and Dr. Brewer, been lately engaged. 



