WHITE JER-FALCON. 
Le Gerfault. 
Gyrfalcon. 
White Jerfalcon. 
Bns. Orn. i.p. no. No. 19. 
Brit. % ool. No. 47. 
This very elegant species measures very near two feet in length, and is 
very justly entitled to the first rank among all the birds of falconry, being 
pre-eminent in courage as well as beauty. Next to the eagle these are 
the most formidable, the most active, and the most intrepid of all rapacious 
buds, they are likewise the most costly, and most esteemed for falconry. 
1 bey are natives of the inhospitable arctic regions of Europe and Asia, 
being never found in warm or even temperate countries. They are very 
frequent in Iceland ; are met with at Lapmark and Norway; in Asia on the 
Urallian and other Siberian mountains, where they brave the coldest cli- 
mates throughout the year; and support themselves in the open air during 
the most severe winters, uninjured, in the latitude of Petersburg, when 
others of the falcon tribe are destroyed by frost ; they have been often 
obseived in May about Albany Fort, Hudsons Bay, but retire before 
winter, feeding on the white grouse, and other birds of the gallinaceous 
kind, and are sometimes met with (though rarely) in the Orkneys. 
In manners and habits of life they very much resemble the Gieenland 
Falcon ; they fly at and boldly attack the larger of the feathered race, but 
their chief objects of prey are the heron, the crane, and the stork, which 
cannot evade or resist their attacks, and of course become easy victims to 
their prowess. 
