THE GYR AND GREENLAND FALCON. 
31 
cularly abundant, owing, it was presumed, to the prey being easily 
captured in its shallow water : in the course of the forenoon he 
had seen fifteen or sixteen in that locality, where, too, the thickly 
wooded banks afforded them suitable resting-places. Mr. Evatt, 
of Mount Louise, Monaghan, has informed me, that during a 
sporting tour in Canada, he was made aware, as night approached, 
of the abundance of basse, at the mouth of the Grand River, by 
ospreys dashing down, and bearing them off to the woods. This 
was the signal for the co mm encement of his fishing. 
The Prince of Canino considers the American osprey distinct 
from the European, but the general opinion of ornithologists 
seems rather opposed to that view. 
THE GYR EALCON. 
Jer Ealcon. Iceland Ealcon. 
Falco gyrfalco , Lin. 
Islandicus , Briss. 
Hancock, Ann. Nat. Hist. vol. v. p. 2, 247. 
Must be included in the Irish catalogue with doubt. 
All we know of it, is what Mr. Templeton has stated under 
“ Jer Ealcon;” — that in 1803 he received the skin of a bird of 
this species, which had been shot near Randalstown, county of 
Antrim. But as the term Jer Ealcon, according to Mr. Hancock's 
views, has been applied indiscriminately to two species, we cannot, 
in the absence of a description, tell to which of them Mr. Tem- 
pleton's bird belonged. 
THE GREENLAND EALCON. 
Falco candicans, Gmel. Linn. 
Groenlandicus , Turt. Linn. 
Hancock, Ann. Nat. Hist. vol. v. p. 2, 249. 
Is of extremely rare occurrence. 
In a letter from John Vandeleur Stewart, Esq., of Rockhill, 
Letterkenny, dated Eeb. 3, 1837, I was favoured with a minute 
