“ Midway between Asia and America this white Falcon was seen at sea, a little north of Behring’s Island, 
by Mr. Bannister, Crossing the Pacific, it is, according to Professor Schlegel, known to the Japanese; and 
it certainly occurs on the continent of Asia, though Avhether its character in Siberia is that of a native, or 
a visitor only, there is not at present enough evidence to decide. . . . Captain Salvin and Mr. Brodrick, in 
their ‘ Falconry in the British Islands,’ state that they ‘ have been informed by travellers that some few- 
large white Falcons, w'hich must be Greenland Falcons, are caught annually in their passage over tlie Caspian 
Sea, and that they are highly prized by the falconers of Syria and Persia.’” 
Tw'o very distinct phases of plumage are found among individuals of this bird, one of which may be 
characterized as light, the other as dark ; these, by some naturalists, are regarded as races only, and not 
as indicative of a distinction of species. Examples of both have from time to time made their appearance 
in our islands; Indeed these occurrences are too numerous to be detailed here in extenso\ but I may mention 
twm of the more recent instances. In June 1865 Mr. R. C. Musgrave informed me that a fine example in tbe 
possession of his father “ Sir George Musgrave, Bart., of Edenhall, in Cumberland, was shot in the preceding 
January by a blacksmith near Croshy Ravensworth, in Westmoreland, whilst in the act of eating a Grouse. 
It is a very fine specimen of a Greenland Falcon, and is remarkable for its extreme whiteness, the breast 
bein" perfectly wdiite and the leg-feathers nearly so.” In the autumn of 1867 another fine individual w^as 
observed at Loch Stack, in the w^estern part of Sutherland, by Lord Belgrave (now Earl Grosvenor), who 
informed me that he saw it strike dowm a Grouse before him, both falling in a little hollow^; he crept 
up to w'ithiu ten yards, and threw his stick at the Falcon as it flew away. Lord Grosvenor tells me it was a 
splendid wdiite bird. Both these individuals w^ere probably young birds of the year, of the w'hite race, as 
the bird killed by Lord Cawdor’s gamekee23er In Pembrokeshire, and now’ in the British Museum, is of the 
dark one. It w’as from this latter specimen that the figure of what is termed the Jerfalcon in my ‘Birds 
of Europe ’ w’as taken ; it is also the original of the figure, likewise so termed, in the three editions of the 
late Mr. Yarrell’s ‘ History of British Birds ;’ it has therefore an historical A alue. 
Little is known of the nidification of this Falcon ; but it probably differs but slightly from that of its ally 
the F. islandus. Three eggs in Mr. Wolley’s collection, said to have been procured by Captain Holboll in 
Greenland, are described by Professor New'ton as being “ suffused w’itb pale reddish orange, having a few 
spots of a darker orange-red, or dull red, or are mottled with pale brownish orange on a white ground.” 
A few words of explanation are necessary to enable the reader to understand the accompanying Plate. 
The middle figure represents an unusually light and beautiful young bird of the year, with tear-drop-like 
markings on the whole of the upper surface; the larger figure the adult, distinguished by having a 
small, somewhat heart-shaped spot at the tip of each feather of the upper surfiice, faint specks of brownish 
black on the under surface, and the tail creamy white. 
