28 NORTHERN ZOOLOGY. 



range, though I have ascertained that it is occasionally seen as far south as lati- 

 tude 52°. It is found northward to the coast of the Arctic Sea, and probably in 

 the most northern Georgian Islands ; it is a well-known inhabitant of Iceland, 

 and was observed by Captain Sabine on the west coast of Greenland, as high as 

 latitude 74°. It is likewise an inhabitant of the north of Europe. 



We saw it often during our journeys over the " Barren Grounds," where its 

 habitual prey is the Ptarmigan, but where it also destroys Plover, Ducks, and 

 Geese. In the middle of June, 1821, a pair of these birds attacked me as I was 

 climbing in the vicinity of their nest, which was built on a lofty precipice on the 

 borders of Point Lake, in latitude 65^°. They flew in circles, uttering loud and 

 harsh screams, and alternately stooping with such velocity, that their motion 

 through the air produced a loud rushing noise ; they struck their claws within an 

 inch or two of my head. I endeavoured, by keeping the barrel of my gun close 

 to my cheek, and suddenly elevating its muzzle when they were in the act of 

 striking, to ascertain whether they had the power of instantaneously changing the 

 direction of their rapid course, and found that they invariably rose above the 

 obstacle with the quickness of thought, showing equal acuteness of vision and 

 power of motion. Although their flight was much more rapid, they bore consi- 

 derable resemblance to the Snowy Owl. At the period at which I saw them, the 

 ground was still partially clothed with snow, and the lakes covered with ice ; but 

 the Jerfalcon, like the Strix nyctea of the same districts, is well calculated, from the 

 whiteness of its plumage, for traversing a snowy waste, without alarming the birds 

 on which it preys. As the Ptarmigan partially migrate southwards in the winter, 

 some of the Jerfalcons follow them ; but, from the young birds being much more 

 common, about latitude 57°, than the mature ones, the latter probably keep nearer 

 to their breeding-places in the more northern, rocky, barren ground districts all the 

 year. When the Jerfalcon pounces down upon a flock of Ptarmigan, the latter 

 endeavour to save themselves by diving instantly into the loose snow, and making 

 their way beneath it to a considerable distance. 



DESCRIPTION 



Of a mature bird (supposed to be a male) from Hudson's Bay, in Mr. Leadbeater's collection. 



Colour. — White, with some clove-brown spots on the dorsal aspect. The head is entirely 

 white, and the neck is nearly so, there being only a few central brown marks on the feathers 

 of the nape. On the back the clove-brown forms a pyriform blotch on each feather, 

 and on the rump it is confined to a narrow streak along the shaft. The spots are smaller on 

 the lesser wing-coverts ; and on the greater coverts, secondaries, and scapularies, the brown 



