22 NORWEGIAN JER-FALCON. 
Le Faucon d’Islande, Brisson; i., pl. 31, p. 373. 
Le Gerfuut de Norvége, Burron; pl. Enl. 462, 
(young.) Hist. Nat. des 
Oiseaux, 1., p. 241, pl. 13, 
(adult.) 
Le Gerfaut, ScHLEGEL ET VERSTER; 
Traité de Fauconnerie, 
(fig. female jun., male 
adult.) 
Faleo Gyr-fulco Norvegicus, Wo.ry. 
Specific Characters.—Upper half of the tarsi clothed, lower 
half and toes of a greenish yellow; moustache very small; 
groundwork of plumage bluish brown above, white below; spotted 
on the belly aud striped upon the sides and beneath the tail, 
in the adult. While young it resembles the young of the 
Greenland and Iceland Falcons, but is smaller.—Dueuanp. 
Measurement. Male—From tip of beak to end of tail twenty 
inches, (Paris.) Expanse of wings twelve inches and a half to 
thirteen inches and a quarter. ‘Tail seven inches two lines to 
seven inches eight lines. Middle toe, without claw, one inch 
ten lines. Tarsus two inches three lines. Female—About one 
tenth larger.—ScHLEGEL. 
Tue bird with which we commence our description 
of the important and interesting family of Falconide, 
has been the subject of much controversy among orni- 
thologists. Some authors maintain there is only one 
genuine species of Jer-Falcon. Others, and I may say 
the greater number of the naturalists of the present 
day, admit there are two—while the opinion has been 
rapidly gaining ground of late years, that there are no 
less than three. 
The subject is one of considerable interest in Natural 
History, and although it forms no part of the plan of 
this work to enter into controversial discussions, it is no 
less the duty of those who conduct it, to lay before 
