NORWEGIAN JER-FALCON. 25 
diagnoses are Fulco rusticolus.—F. cera palpebris pedi- 
busque luteis, corpore cinereo alboque undulato, collari 
albo. Falco lanarius.—F. cera lutea pedibus rostroque 
ceruleis, corpore subtus, maculis nigris longitudinalibus. 
The name of Jer-Falcon used to be applied 
indiscriminately to all the three races or species. 
Schlegel proposes to confine it entirely to the true 
Jer, the Norway species. The name is supposed by 
some to be derived from Grau, because the bird 
rises in circles as it pursues its prey. About the 
twelfth century these birds were brought, for the pur- 
poses of Falconry, from the North of Europe and the 
Low Countries, to all other European nations, even to 
the Levant. 
Schlegel suggests that those ancient Falconers may 
have given the name they now bear, as in Holland 
there are several words composed in the same manner, 
as Gver, derived from the verb gieren, which in Dutch 
has many meanings, as “uttering shrill cries,” “clawing 
or seizing objects,” “flying or throwing oneself swiftly 
from side to side.” In England the name used is 
Jer-Falcon, or simply Jer. 
The true Ger-Falcon has only been observed at 
present im the season of propagation on the Norwegian 
Alps. ‘This is evidently the species which F. Boie met 
with in 1817, when travelling in Norway, and of which 
he relates that it leaves the mountains in winter, and 
accompanies the Ptarmigans, which are its principal 
food, in their migrations to the sea-shore. The Nor- 
wegians assured M. Boie that neither white or whitish 
Falcons exist in their country, and we cannot therefore 
doubt but that the great Falcons of this country 
belong to this species of Ger-Falcon. M. Boie further 
adds that the young of the year leave the mountains 
VOL. I. bs E 
