342 GREENLAND FALCON. 
Breconshire, Sussex, Devon and Cornwall. Ireland, as might be 
expected from its geographical position, has not been unfavoured : 
Mr. R. J. Ussher informs me that nineteen examples have been 
identified, and that on eight occasions birds which seemed to be 
pairs were noticed, while the records for April are twice as numerous 
as for any other month, though the winter of 1883-84 afforded 
eight. There are also eleven Irish records which cannot definitely 
be referred to this or the next species. . 
It may be doubted whether the true Greenland Falcon nests to 
the south of the Arctic circle. It was obtained on Jan Mayen 
Island, and is probably the species which has been seen on Spits- 
bergen, as well as Novaya Zemlya; while its head-quarters are in 
the northern portion of the country whence it takes its name. 
Mr. Chichester Hart, of H.M.S. ‘ Discovery,’ saw a pair nesting on 
Grinnell Land, in 79° 41’ N. lat. ; while westward a ‘white’ Falcon 
can be traced through Arctic America to Alaska, across Bering 
Straits to Kamchatka and Arctic Siberia, and, in spring, to the 
Amur. Mr. Barrett-Hamilton brought from Bering Island a white 
bird which seems to be / candicans. No example has been 
obtained on Franz Josef Land. In the, British Museum are 
specimens, presented by Mr. J. G. Millais, from Akureyri and 
Reykjavik in Iceland ; and from that island were brought (probably 
in transit) the ‘white falcons’ which were accepted as tribute or 
gifts worthy of royalty in the Middle Ages. Greenland Falcons 
have visited Norway, Sweden and Heligoland, and have even 
ranged as far south as the French side of the Pyrenees in winter. 
The eggs, sometimes 4 in number, are pale orange-red in 
ground-colour, with darker mottlings and spots : measurements 2°2 
by 1°8 in. ; they are placed on a bare ledge of rock, or on the old 
nest of some other bird. In the north the food of this species consists 
of Ptarmigan and Willow-Grouse, lemmings and other mammals. 
The adult is chiefly white, with blackish streaks and elongated 
spots on the upper parts ; the under parts being pure white or only 
slightly spotted, and the flanks devoid of bars; but the individual 
variation is very great. In the first plumage the markings are 
brownish and very broad above, but drop-shaped below, the tail 
being more or less barred. The adult dress is assumed at the first 
complete moult, and never varies afterwards. Length of the male 
21 in.; wing 14°5 in.; female 23 in.; wing 16 in. Cere, bill, legs 
and feet pale yellow in the adult; light bluish-grey in the young. 
In this, as in all true Falcons, the irides are dark hazel :—not 
yellow, as in the short-winged Hawks. 
