138 BRITISH BIRDS, WITH THEIR NESTS AND EGGS 
the nest, which is said to be placed on a ledge of rock, either a cliff overlooking 
the sea or inland, and sometimes on the top of a pine or some other tree, and is 
built of twigs and small branches, and lined with moss, deers’ hairs, feathers, or 
sea weeds. The eggs, laid in May or June, are usually four, sometimes only 
three; they are considerably larger than those of the Peregrine, measuring from 
2°4 to 2'2 inches, by from 1°9 to 1°8 inches. The ground colour is creamy white, 
closely freckled over with orange-brown, rich reddish-brown, and brick-red. Some. 
closely resemble typical Hobby’s eggs; others are like certain varieties of the 
Peregrine. A beautiful variety described by Seebohm was mottled all over with 
pale rosy-pink shell markings, intermixed with pale reddish-brown blotches and 
spots on a creamy white ground. ‘The shell is rather rough, and without gloss. 
The eggs vary much in size and form. In a clutch of three in the writer’s 
cabinet, taken May aist,-18@4, at Sakkertappen, in Greenland, one is elongated, 
while the other two are subovate. ~ 
Lord Lilford writes :—‘ to the eye of a Falconer there is a peculiar ‘make’ 
and character about the Greenland Falcon that are quite sufficient to enable him 
to identify her, even if she were jet black,” adding that, in captivity, according 
to his experience this species is ‘“‘extremely docile, and a very fine and powerful 
flyer and stooper, but what we call in falconry a poor ‘footer,’ that is, it is not 
able, or more probably not disposed, to bind to and grasp its quarry firmly; it is 
also by no means hardy of constitution, and is difficult to keep in good condition 
for field purposes.” In his beautiful coloured figures of British Birds he gives 
the portrait of a very fine adult female, ‘“‘one of the tamest Falcons that I ever 
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knew,” that was at the time in his aviaries. 
The home of the Greenland Falcon is in the northern parts of Greenland, in 
Arctic America, from Baffin’s Bay to Alaska, probably also in North, Siberia. 
. In the colours of its plumage it closely corresponds with the Snowy Owl, 
from its earliest youth the ground colour is white. Very old birds become almost 
pure white all over, with some of the feathers on the back and upper surface of 
the wings tipped with black; tail pure white. here are darker birds which have 
the tail barred with black, and with more black markings on the upper parts. In 
immature birds the markings are not black but sooty brown, and are longitudinal 
instead of transverse, and are tear shaped on the breast, and the tail is barred. 
In young birds the cere, beak, and legs are horn blue; in the adults they are 
pale yellow; claws light horn; irides hazel. Young birds attain their full 
plumage in their second year. 
Length of male 21 inches, of femiale 23 inches. 
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