NORWEGIAN JER-FALCON. %6 



their readers a brief statement of the case as it now 

 stands, and the reasons which have induced me to 

 include the bird at the head of this description, among 

 those which are observed in Europe; and as therefore 

 distinct from the other two species which have occurred 

 in England. Nay, I believe, strictly speaking, the 

 Jer-Ealcon now under discussion has been killed in 

 England; but as the authors of our British works 

 have only described and figured one bird under the 

 general name of F. islandicus, I have thought it better 

 to give a figure of the F. gyr-falco of Schlegel, and to 

 state the reasons of that eminent naturalist for claiming 

 specific distinction for this bird. 



When Gould published his work on the "Birds of 

 Europe," in 1837, he alluded to the statements made 

 by Falconers who bring over trained Falcons for sale 

 to this country, that there was a decided difference 

 between the Norwegian and Iceland birds, and he asks 

 the question — are there two species? Temminck had 

 previously described one species only, F. islandicus, and 

 had given Falco islandicus candicans of Latham, 

 Gmelin, and Meyer, as the female; while he confounded 

 Falco sacer, the bird next to be described, with the 

 Falco gyr-falco of authors, which he considered the 

 young of F. islandicus. 



A year after Mr. Gould's work appeared, Mr. Han- 

 cock sent a memoir to the "Annals and Magazine of 

 Natural History," in which he described two Jer- 

 Falcons as existing among the English specimens, 

 under the name of F. islandicus; and to these birds 

 he gave the names of Falco greenlandicus and Falco 

 islandicus; the former being the light-coloured species, 

 or, as Mr. H. subsequently described it — "having white 

 feathers with dark markings" — the latter the darker 



