NORWEGIAN JER-FALCON. 



Le Faucon d' Islands, Buissok; i, pi. 21, p. 373. 



Le Gerfaut de Norvege, Buiton; pi. Eiil. 462, 



(young.) Hist. Nat. de 

 Oiseaux, i, p. 241, pi. 13, 

 (adult.) 



Le Gerfaut, Schlegel et Verster; 



Traite de Fauconnerie, 

 (jig. female jun., male 

 adult.) 



Falco gyr-falco norvegicus, Wolley. 



Specific Characters. — Upper half of the tarsi clothed, lower 

 half and toes of a greenish yellow; moustache -very small; 

 groundwork of plumage bluish brown above, white below; spotted 

 on the belly and striped upon the sides and beneath tbe tail, 

 in the adult. While young it resembles the young of the 

 Greenland and Iceland Falcons, but is smaller. — Degland. 



Measurement. Male — From tip of beak to end of tail twenty 

 inches, (Paris.) Expanse of wings twelve inches and a half to 

 thirteen inches and a quarter. Tail seven inches two lines to 

 seven inches eight lines. Middle toe, without claw, one inch 

 ten lines. Tarsus two inches three lines. Female— About one 

 tenth larger. — Schlegel. 



The bird with which we commence our description 

 of the important and interesting family of Falconidce, 

 has been the subject of much controversy among orni- 

 thologists. Some authors maintain there is only one 

 genuine species of Jer-Falcon. Others, and I may say 

 the greater number of the naturalists of the present 

 day, admit there are two — while the opinion has been 

 rapidly gaining ground of late years, that there are no 

 less than three. 



The subject is one of considerable interest in Natural 

 History, and although it forms no part of the plan of 

 this work to enter into controversial discussions, it is no 

 less the duty of those who conduct it, to lay before 



