SCANDINAVIAN GYRFALCON. 141 
somewhat broadly, the upper flanks being marked with rather large heart-shaped 
spots; under tail-coverts rather irregularly barred; bill bluish horn, darkest at 
tip; cere and legs yellow; claws almost black; irides dark brown; length 213 
inches. The female is like the male, but larger; length 24 to 244 inches. Young 
birds are brown on the back, wing-coverts, and tail, the feathers edged with 
buffish-white; head and under parts buffish-white, striated broadly with brown. 
Family—F AL CONID AE. 
SCANDINAVIAN (GYRFALCON. 
Falco gyrfalco, LINN. 
NLY two examples of this the typical Gyrfalcon of Linneeus, and the darkest 
in plumage of the three European species of the Northern Falcons, have 
been captured in this country. A bird of such powerful wing, and a comparatively 
near neighbour, might well be expected to visit us oftener. Its best distinction is the 
presence of the moustache, absent in the other two species. One, in the possession 
of Mr. Borrer, and figured by him in his Birds of Sussex, was killed in that 
county in 1845, and identified as an adult Norway Gyrfalcon by the late Mr. J. 
H. Gurney. Seebohm records an immature example shot at Orford, in Suffolk, 
in the act of devouring a hen, on October 14th, 1867. 
Vou. HI Z 
