FALCONID.E. 27 



[8.] 2. Falco Islandicus. (Latham.) The Jerfalcon. 



Genus. Falco. Linn. Auctorum. 



Ash-coloured Buzzard. (Buteo cinereus.) Edwards, pi. 53. Young, from Hudson's Bay. 



Falco fuscus. Fabricius. Faun. GrcenL, p. 56. Young. 



Falco sacer. Forster. Phil. Trans., lxii., p. 383 and 423. Young, from Hudson's Bay. 



Collared Falcon. Penn. Arct. Zool., ii., p. 222, sp. G. Mature. 



Gyrfalcon. Idem, ii., p. 221, sp. F. Immature. Brit. Zool., t. xix. 



Iceland Falcon. Idem. Aret. Zool., ii., p. 216, sp. D. Immature. 



Sacre Falcon. Idem, ii., p. 202, sp. 96. Immature. 



Dusky Falcon. Idem, ii., p. 220. E. Immature. 



Falco Islandicus. Lath. Ind., p. 32, sp. 39. Mature. 



Falco rusticolus. Idem, p. 28, sp. 60. Mature. 



Falco Gyrfalco. Idem, p. 32, sp. 68. Immature. 



Falco sacer. Idem, p. 34, sp. 75. Immature. 



Falco lagopus /3. Idem, p. 19, sp. 32/3. Yearling. 



Falco obscurus. Idem, p. 44, sp. 105. Immature. 



Falco Islandicus. Temminck, i., p. 17. Sabine, Lin. Tr., xii., p. 528. 



Hierofalco candicans. Cuvier, Reg. An., i., p. 323. 



Falco Islandicus. Selby. Brit. Orn., i., p. 35, pi. 14. 



Peepooneeshew, (Winter bird.) Cree Indians. 



This very handsome Falcon differs from the Peregrine, in having- a longer 

 tail, shorter and stronger tarsi and toes, and somewhat less pointed wings ; but it 

 is in all respects a true Falcon, and one of the most courageous, though Baron 

 Cuvier has considered it as the typical species of his sub-genus Hierofalco. The 

 want of a tooth on the upper mandible, which he gives as the principal character 

 of the sub-genus, seems to be merely an occasional variety ; for many specimens, 

 both European and North American, are preserved in the Hudson's Bay, British, 

 and other Museums in London, which have as large and acute a tooth as the Pere- 

 grine, although it is generally a little nearer the point of the bill than in the latter 

 bird. Indeed, the bill of the Jerfalcon differs from that of the Peregrine, not in the 

 want of a tooth, but in the presence of a perceptible obtuse lobe near the middle 

 of the mandible ; whilst in the Peregrine there is only a very slight indication of 

 such a lobe. There is a solitary specimen of a Jerfalcon in the British Museum, 

 whose bill is destitute of a tooth, agreeing perfectly with Buffon's figure and 

 Cuvier's description ; but, in all other respects, that specimen has the same form 

 and stature as those whose bills are toothed. 



The Jerfalcon is a constant resident in the Hudson's Bay territories, where it is 

 known by the name of the " Speckled Partridge Hawk," or by that of the 

 " Winterer." It is not enumerated by Wilson or Buonaparte amongst the birds 

 of the United States, and I am unable to state the exact southern limit of its 



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