THE ICELAND FALCON. 139 
Family—FALCONIDA:. 
ICELAND FALCON. 
Falco islandus, GMEL. 
HIS is a somewhat larger and stouter bird than the preceding species, with 
a shorter tail in proportion, longer wings, and larger head; it is also darker 
in plumage. It receives its name from its being a nesting bird in Iceland; it is 
also found in South Greenland, whence it wanders to the north of Europe, and it 
occurs on the eastern side of North America. 
Like the Greenland Falcon the Iceland Falcon has also been noted more 
frequently in Scotland and its Islands than anywhere else in the kingdom. Dr. 
Saxby reports that, in former days, it was almost a regular winter visitor to the 
Shetland Isles, to Unst especially; and was usually seen after a snow storm 
accompanied by a heavy gale. Robert Gray states that between 1835 and 1851, 
several specimens were shot in the counties of Ross, Sutherland, and Inverness ; 
“and within the last four years I have satisfied myself that four or five have been 
shot in the west of Scotland.’ He also mentions others obtained in the Hebrides. 
Harvie-Brown knew of two in the county of Caithness. In England, the Iceland 
Falcon has been reported from Northumberland, Yorkshire, and Sussex, in single 
instances. It has also been obtained in the Channel Islands. In January, 1895, 
Messrs. Pratt, of Brighton, received one that had been shot in the Scilly Isles, 
and a few weeks later one was killed in Breconshire, and recorded in the Field. 
But as both Greenland and Iceland Falcons are occasionally brought alive to this 
country in whaling ships returning from the Polar regions, and command a high 
price from falconers, it is not unlikely that some of the instances given above 
may have been escapes. Thus, in January 1870, a fine young female Icelander, 
caught among some sedges in the parish of St. Merryn, near Padstow, and recorded 
at the time by Mr. E. H. Rodd in the Zoologist, proved to be, without any doubt, 
as that gentleman was informed by Major Fisher, the well-known Falconer, 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. An Iceland 
Falcon has also been reported from the neighbourhood of Plymouth. 
“From having kept some of all the three Northern Falcons in captivity,” 
