FALCOXID^. 159 



the pole, of the Snowy Owl, and is only by some accident, when following 

 the autumnal migrations of waterfowl, ever driven so far south as to reach 

 our shores. The Greenland Falcon is the whiiest of the three subspecies 

 of Gyr Falcon now distinguished by ornithologists, and extends its range 

 further to the north than either the Iceland or the Norway Falcons. 

 Only two examples of it are known to us as having been obtained in 

 Devonshire, and two in Cornwall, the first of which, according to Mr. Hill's 

 ' Catalogue of the Birds of the Lizard district,' was shot at Gwavas Farm, 

 in Grade, in the year 1830. For our knowledge of the second Cornish 

 specimen we arc indebted to the Kev. W. Willimott, who writes : " There 

 is in the collection at Scorrier House, lledruth, the seat of the late George 

 "Williams, Esq., a Greenland Gyr Tiercel, shot a few years ago on his 

 property, the Goonhilly Downs, in the Lizard district. It is a very 

 beautiful specimen, nearly snow-white, with very few dark spots, the 

 whitest I ever saw living or dead ; it was shot on a Pigeon, which it was 

 seen to knock down." From the description given us of a Gyr Falcon 

 which was shot on Lundy Island many years ago, in the month of 

 November, by Mr. Philip Wathen while Woodcock-shooting, which 

 was a very white bird, we have no doubt that it was also a Greenland 

 Falcon. This is one of the two Devonshire specimens, and is still pre- 

 served in Bristol; the other, which occurred at Plymouth, we have seen 

 in the tine collection of the late Mr. E. H. Ilodd at Penzance, and is also 

 a remarkably white bird. Greenland and Iceland Falcons are sometimes 

 brought to this country in whaling-ships returning from the Polar llegions, 

 and command a high price from falconers, and it is not unlikely that 

 some of these may have escaped and furnished collectors with " British " 

 specimens of these rare Falcons. Thus, in January 1870, a fine young 

 female Iceland Falcon, curiously caught among some sedges in the parish 

 of St. Merryn, near Padstow, and recorded at the time by Mr. E. H. Ilodd 

 (Zool. 1870, pp. 2017 and 2060), was, without doul)t, as that gentleman 

 was informed by the well-known falconer, Major Fisher, 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 flown. 



Dr. Edward Moore records the ca]>ture of a ' Gyr Falcon ' on the L^-nher 

 lUver, near Plymouth, Feb. 7th, 1834. It was wounded in one wing, 

 and was kept alive by Pincombc, the bird-stuffer, for some time (^lag. Xat. 

 Hist. 1837). This is the same specimen as the one said to have been taken 

 at Port Eliot, St. Germans, Cornwall, which was in the collection of the late 

 Mr. E. H. Kodd, of Penzance (Xewton, Yarrell'sB. Birds, 4th ed. i. p. 42). 

 It is also probably tlie same as that mentioned by Bellamy under the name 

 of " Falco islfindicKs,''' which he says was taken fromthe ^lorwcll rocks on 

 the Tamar, Feb. 7th, 1834 (Nat. Hist. S. Devon, p. liJO). It remained in 

 Pincorabe's possession up to June \H(u'), when it was purchased by 'Mr. 

 Ilodd (Zool. 1803, p. 8078). An " Iceland Falcon " in M r. F. C. Hiugston's 

 collection is said to have been shot near Plymouth (E. A. S. E.). 



A specimen of the " (iyr Falcon " was shot on the top of lUilhick Hill, 

 near JSalsdean, Sussex, Sept. 20th, 1882, and was sent to Mr. Swaysland, 

 taxidermist, of (iuccu's Koad, Brighton. It was determined to be aa 



