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INTRODUCTION. 
Subfamily FALCONIN.^^. 
Genus Falco. 
Tbe members of this genus are preeminently bold, courageous, and sanguinary, many of them, 
especially tbe Gyr Falcons and Peregrines, not hesitating to attack in the air birds much larger than 
themselves ; and when trained for hawking, as they have been from time immemorial, their courage and 
daring is so much enhanced that they will engage with birds of even larger size than they do in their 
wild state. Structurally they are better adapted for a rpiiek and arrovv-llke flight than any other of the 
Raptores. 
One or other of the numerous species of this group inhabit nearly every portion of the globe. Tlie 
Gyr Falcon and its immediate allies are almost solely confined to the high northern regions, whence they 
migrate during autumn and winter towards the equator, but never across it. 
The Peregrines are much more generally dispersed than the Gyr Falcons, the various species frequenting 
most countries both north and south ; thus the form exists in Europe, Asia, and Australia, in Africa also 
from the Atlas range to the Cape of Good Mope, and in America from the latitude of Hudson’s Bay to 
Tierra del Fuego. The smaller Falcons, such as the Hohhy and Merlin, are also more or less represented 
in each country, hut generally, although not exclusively, are of different species. 
15. Falco islaxdus ............ Vol. I. PI. XI. 
Iceland Falcon. 
The subject of the great northern Falcons will he found so fully treated of in the body of the work that it 
would he mere tautology to say more here than that this bird is, as its name implies, a native of Iceland, 
and, but more sparingly, of Greerdand. It is also said to he found in Hudson’s Bay and other of the 
extreme northern parts of America. Occasionally adidts, but more frequently young birds of the year, 
wander as far south as the British Islands. 
IG. Falco islandus ........... Vol. I. PI. XII. 
Iceland Falcon (young). 
Appears to he darkly coloured from the nest, hut never so deep in tint as that of the true Gyr Falcon. 
