TIIK ICELAND FALCON. 
ir. 
THE ICELAND EALCON. 
Fako Islandicus. 
ICELAND HAWK. 
It is only since iny departure from Shetland that the con- 
sequent opportunities of examining specimens and referring to 
hooks have enabled me to recognise in the true Iceland Falcon 
the species which I had for so many years believed to be 
merely the young of Falco candicans. Having now care- 
fully corrected my scanty notes, rejecting all which appeared 
doubtful, and therefore useless, I can now speak with confidence 
of the two as separate species. 
Until within the last fifteen years, the Iceland Falcon used 
to visit these islands, Unst especially, with some regularity, 
between autumn and spring, usually after a snow-storm ac- 
companied by a heavy gale ; now, however, two or three years 
may pass without the appearance of a single individual being 
recorded. I saw the last in February 1871, when two, pos- 
sibly a pair, visited Balta Sound, and remained there several 
days, keeping mostly near the beach, and feeding upon the 
snipes and starlings which had been driven from inland by the 
frost. I kept them under careful and almost constant observa- 
tion, and could distinguish but little difference betw^een their 
habits and those of the preceding species, except that these, 
although occasionally coming near the pigeon-boxes and poul- 
try-yards, seemed more inclined to avoid the haunts of man. 
Although the tw^o birds were seldom more than half a mile or 
a mile apart, each hunted independently for itself. Once, when 
the larger of the two struck a rock dove into the water, the 
other came up hurriedly, but whether with a selfish motive, 
or with a desire to render assistance, is uncertain. Both, how- 
ever, hovered about the victim for nearly a quarter of an hour, 
but without attempting to recover it. 
In 1858 I was shown the moth-eaten and otherwise dilapi- 
dated skin of a male which had been killed in LTnst about a 
