22 



broader, and forming bands, the tail also being barred with blackish. In this darker form the young 

 birds have the upper parts much more profusely marked than in the young bird above described, the 

 dorsal feathers showing only a white margin ; the tail and wings are broadly barred, and underparts are 

 marked with brownish-black stripes. In all the young birds the dark markings are duller than in the 

 adult, being dull sooty brownish, whereas in the old bird they are clearer black. The bill in the young 

 bird is tinged with horn-blue, and the legs are greyish blue in tinge. As in all the Falcons, the male is 

 less in size than the female, the average size of the males in my collection being — culmen 1*3, wing 14 - 0, 

 tail 8-2, tarsus 2*75. 

 During the last four or five years I have made use of every available opportunity of examining specimens of 

 the northern Falcons in as many stages of plumage as possible ; and I have also succeeded in obtaining 

 for my own collection a tolerably fair series of examples from different localities. The result of my 

 investigations is that I now fully coincide with the opinion formed by Mr. Hancock (Ann. & Mag. of 

 Nat. Hist. 2nd ser. xiii. p. 110), and indorsed by several of our most eminent authorities, and lately, also, 

 by Professor Newton (Yarr. Brit. B. ed. 4, i. p. 38), viz. that the Greenland Falcon is invariably light- 

 coloured from its youth, and the Iceland Falcon dark-coloured above in both adult and young plumage. 

 In all the true Falcons, so far as I am aware, the immature dress is characterized by longitudinal 

 stripes and markings, whereas in the mature dress most of those markings are disposed transversely ; 

 and the northern Falcons make no exception ; but I believe that there is a good deal of individual 

 difference in the amount of colour in examples of the Greenland Falcon, many specimens being much 

 whiter than others from the earliest stage when feathered. I must not omit to refer to the researches 

 made by Mr. R. B. Sharpe on the present question, though at the same time I frankly confess that, 

 after carefully following him throughout his arguments, I cannot at all agree with him. In the first 

 place he entirely sets aside the important evidence obtained by a careful examination of living birds, 

 and restricts his researches to an examination of dried skins, which in a question of this nature are not 

 unfrequently apt to mislead one. I have now before me a most carefully executed painting by Wolf of 

 a young Greenland Falcon, taken from a live specimen in the possession of Mr. J. H. Gurney, and 

 another painting by the same eminent artist of the same bird after the lapse of four years ; and these 

 two drawings clearly illustrate the" changes in the character of the markings from longitudinal to trans- 

 verse. I may add that the opinion I hold in common with Mr. Hancock, Professor Newton, Mr. 

 Gurney, Mr. Gould, Professor Schlegel, and other eminent authorities coincides strictly with that 

 held by falconers who have studied these birds chiefly, if not altogether, when alive ; and it is therefore, 

 I may safely affirm, most likely to be the correct one. Judging from specimens kept in confinement or 

 used for the purpose of falconry, the young plumage is cast and that of maturity assumed at the first 

 moult, which takes place when the bird is from nine to fifteen months old ; and when once the adult 

 dress is obtained, no further alteration in colour takes place at subsequent moults. 



The Greenland Falcon inhabits Greenland (where it is found chiefly in the northern districts), 

 Iceland, Arctic North America, and Northern Asia; and as a straggler it is found, as below 

 stated, at considerable distances from its true home. As regards its occurrence in Great Britain, 

 I cannot do better than quote from Professor Newton, who writes {op. cit. p. 42) as follows : — 

 " The young bird from which the figure here given was taken, was shot in Pembrokeshire, in a 

 warren belonging to Lord Cawdor, and by him presented to the Zoological Society, whence it 

 passed to the British Museum, where it now is. It had been observed, says Mr. Tracey (Zool. 

 p. 2639), by his father for eight or ten days before it was killed. A specimen taken at Port 

 Eliot, in Cornwall, and now in the collection of Mr. Bodd, as stated in the second edition of his 

 'List of British Birds' (but said by Mr. Brooking Rowe to be the example whose occurrence on 



