“ On my way from Hammerfest,” says Mr. Wolley, “ I intended to visit the Falcons’ nests of which I had heard 
from Lassi ; but when I got to Kautokeino I hesitated, for several reasons : the snow might go any day ; and I 
had some cause to doubt the truth of the account. However, I had the good luck to find his drung, who said that 
his master had the day befoi’e pointed out the rock where the nest was. Getting three Reindeer, we started at 
once, and in the course of time came to the small cliffs in the narrow valley where the river lay. . . . We had not 
long left the track on the river, when a Falcon flew up from the rock where the nest was supposed to be, and soon 
afterwards settled on the trunk of a dead tree, once or twice uttering a cry. I now knew there was a nest; and in 
a few moments more I saw it, looking very large and with a black space about it, as though it w^as in the mouth of 
a little cave in the face of the rock. This was a joyful moment, but not so much so as when the hen bird flew off 
and settled on a little stump some thirty yards from the nest. We were ascending the hill, and might be about 
fifty yards off when she left the nest. I took off my shoes, though there was deep snow everywhere except just 
on the face of the rock, and first tried it from above ; but it seemed scarcely practicable. Then I went below ; and 
with the Lapp to support my feet, and Ludwig to give me additional help with a pole, I managed to climb up. Just 
at the last bit I had to rest some time. Then I drew myself, and saw the four eggs to my right hand looking small 
in the middle of a large nest. Again I waited, to get steady for the final reach. I had only a bit of stone to stand 
upon not bigger than a walnut, and frozen to the surface of the ledge, w'hich sloped outwards. I put two of 
the eggs into my cap and two into my pocket, and cautiously withdrew. The nest appeared to have been quite 
freshly made. The sticks of which it w^as composed were thick, barkless, and bleached ; and the only lining was 
a bundle or two of coarsish dry grass. The eggs were handed down in a glove at the end of a pole ; and when 
they were placed in a safe corner my feet were put in the right places and I descended in safety. I had luckily 
brought a box, with hay, and on the 12th of May had the eggs safe at Muoniovara. There were young inside, 
perhaps an inch and a half long, with heads as big as horsebeans. 
“An egg, from a nest in a tree, was brought to Muoniovara on the 18th of June, 1857, by^a man who said 
it w^as the egg of Astur palumbarius. The tree in which the nest was placed was on the north side of a very 
large marsh, with no pines between it and the tree ; and the nest was placed just at the top. It might be 
seven fathoms high. I can hardly doubt the egg is a Gyrfalcon’s.” 
The above passages are extracted from the first volume of the ‘ Ootheca Wolleyana,’ to which I must refer 
my readers for many other interesting details respecting the discovery of the eggs of this species. 
“I have not had the luck,” says the late Mr. Wheelwright, in his ‘Spring and Summer in Lapland,’ “to 
examine many specimens of this Falcon ; but all I have seen appeared to be smaller than the Iceland Falcon, and 
more resembling the Peregrine ; and in my mind it is clearly a distinct species, entirely confined to the Scandinavian 
fells, but not to Lapland alone, for it is met with as far south as the Dovre fell in Norway. The eggs brought to 
me from a high cliff on the shore of Lake Wihrigaur on the Norwegian frontier, about fifty miles west of Quickiock, 
Avere of a uniform brick-dust-red colour. 
“ The Lap name of this Falcon is ‘ Rip Spenning.’ Spanning is the name for every bird of prey — Hawks, OavIs, 
&c. ; aiad the word ripa is added on account of the havoc this Gyrfalcon commits among the Ptarmigan.” 
I can confirm Mr. Wheelwright’s assertion that the Gyrfalcon inhabits the Doatc fjeld ; for, although I 
did not see it during my visit to that elevated region in July 1856, a large rock was pointed out to me by a 
most trustworthy person as a place where the bird annually constructs its nest and rears its young. 
It may be expected that I should give some account of the estimation in Avhich this noble bird Avas formerly 
held in the palmy days of falconry, Avhen it was commonly employed to capture the Crane, the Wild Goose, 
and the Bustard ; hut as that sport is noAv nearly extinct, at least in Europe, I can of my own knoAvledge 
haA^e nothing of interest to communicate on the subject, hut must content myself by referring those of my 
readers who desire information respecting it to the many treatises which haA^e been published from the days 
of Dame Juliana Berners to the present time, and especially to Messrs. Salvin and Brodrick’s ‘ Falconry in 
the British Islands ’ and my friend Professor Schlegel and Mr. A. Verster van Wulverhorst’s magnificent 
‘ Traite de Fauconnerie.’ It Avill not, however, be superfluous to mention that the present bird was held in 
as great, if not greater estimation than any other member of the family to which it belongs. 
I cannot consistently close these remarks without recording the kindness of the late Mr. Wolley in 
presenting me Avith two beautiful adult Gyrfalcons obtained during his sojourn in Lapland. These specimens 
still grace my collection, and will ever be regarded with interest as the gift of an amiable and lamented 
friend. 
The Plate represents an adult, and a young bird of the first autumn, about the natural size. 
