Birds. 8439 



Gould it is possible that George Herbert was thinking when he 



sang, 



" Of all thy creatures, both by sea and land, 



Only to man hast thou made known thy ways ; 



And put the pen alone into his hand, 



And made him secretary of thy praise." 



Edward Newman. 



The Norwegian Jer-Falcon (Falco Jer-falco norvegicus of Wooley, " rip-spenning," 

 Lap., " jagt falk," Sw.) — Of this dark jer-falcon I only succeeded in obtaining one 

 nest with three eggs, which was taken by a Lap on the 8th of June, from a high cliff 

 on the shores of Lake Wihrigaur, on the Norwegian frontier, about fifty miles west of 

 Quickiock. And now allow me to say a few words respecting this northern jer-falcon. 

 And first I will refer the reader to Dr. Bree's ' Birds of Europe,' in which he will find 

 a life-like picture of this bird, be it only a variety of the Iceland falcon or a distinct 

 species. I have not had the luck to examine many specimens of this falcon, but all I 

 have seen have been as dark in plumage as Dr. Bree's figure. They all appeared to 

 be smaller than the Iceland falcon ; the colour different from the young Iceland falcons 

 which I have seen, and more resembling the peregrine falcon ; and although I am 

 hardly competent to give an opinion, in my mind it is clearly a distinct species, entirely 

 .confined to the Scandinavian fell (but not only to Lapland, for it is met with as far 

 south as the Dovre fells in Norway, where it is known by the name of the " bla falk,'' 

 or the blue falcon). The egg coloured by Dr. Bree is from a specimen in the British 

 Museum, and more resembles a light variety of the egg of Falco islandicus than the 

 eggs of this dark jer-falcon which I obtained. The three eggs which were brought to 

 me with part of the old female were of a uniform dull red colour all over, not speckled 

 or patched, and of a more elongated form. This bird is well-known to the Laps, who 

 distinguish it from the peregrine, the only other large falcon that breeds on these fells ; 

 and it appears to be not rare — in fact, from what I could gather, more common in 

 this district than even the peregrine. So much confusion has existed, and so many 

 different opinions have been given respecting the identity of this falcon, that any ob- 

 servations which may tend to throw a light on the matter must be acceptable to the 

 naturalist. Whether or no there be three distinct species of the jer-falcon, one thing 

 appears to be clear, that this dark falcon never becomes perfectly white, as in the Green- 

 land and Iceland forms. And here let me correct a mistake which seems to have 

 gained ground in England, " that in Scandinavia the forms found in Greenland and 

 Iceland never seem to occur." Far from this being the case I never yet heard of this 

 dark variety (unless, indeed, we follow Nilsson, and consider this dark form # as nothing 

 more than the Iceland and Greenland bird in a dark state of plumage) being killed off 

 the fells, and certainly all the jer-falcons which are killed in the south and middle of 

 Sweden (and I have seen them very white) appear to belong to the Greenland and 

 Iceland forms. Nay, more than this, I bought at Quickiock a skin of a very fine white 

 old Iceland falcon, which was killed up there in 1861. The man who shot it considered 

 it a great rarity, as he had never seen one so white before, but I do believe that the only 

 bird which breeds on these fells is the dark Falco Jer-falco norvegicus. I very much 

 doubt, however, whether we are correct in applying the Linnean synonym of Falco 



