l8o General Notes. ["April 
Auk, XII, April, 1895, p , /So 
The White Gyrfalcon in New England. — Not long since Mr. George 
A. Boardman wrote me that he had heard of the capture, i n eastern Maine , 
of a very light-colored Gyrfalcon. Upon my expressing a lively interest 
in the matter he very kindly put me in correspondence with Mr. John 
Clayton of Lincoln, Maine, who mounted the specimen and from whom I 
have just purchased it. Although too dark colored to be typical of that 
form it is, nevertheless, an unmistakable example of Falco islandus 
Briinn. It is a young bird and, judging by the measurements, a male, 
although the sex was not determined by dissection. It was shot in South 
Winn (just south of Lincoln ) about October 8 (Mr. Clayton received it on 
the 9th and in such fresh condition that he does not think it could have 
been dead more than twenty-four hours), 1893, by a young man named 
Wyman who found it perched on a telegraph pole. 
This capture is of considerable importance, for the White Gyrfalcon 
does not appear to have been before taken in New England if, indeed, it 
has occurred anywhere within the United States. It has been, reported 
more than once, but in every case, apparently, either on insufficient 
evidence or mistaken identification. The repeated changes or interchanges 
of names in the Gyrfalcon group have also led to much confusion. A 
recent instance of this is the mention by Mr. Chapman (Birds of 
Vicinity of New York City, 1894, p. 41) under "F islandus Briinn.” of 
the Long Island (New York) specimen originally recorded by Mr. 
Lawrence (Ann. Lyc. Nat. Hist. New York, VIII, 1866, p. 280) and since 
referred to by Mr. Ridgway (Hist. N. Am. Birds, III, 1874, p. 114) and 
by Mr. Dutcher (Auk, X, 1893, p. 274) as F. islandicus .' Mr. Chapman 
now writes me that he has never seen this specimen and “ had not the 
slightest intention of changing its original identification,” but that he 
was misled “ into giving F. islandus as the equivalent of F. islandicus .” 
It may be well, therefore, to improve this and every convenient oppor- 
tunity to reiterate the fact that, under the arrangement first proposed by 
Dr. Stejneger (Auk, II, 1885, pp. 187, 188) and afterwards adopted in the 
A. O. U. Check-List, the bird which, prior to 1885, was so generally called 
F. candtcans now stands as F. islandus , while that formerly known 
(among American writers at least) as F. islandicus has become F. 
rusticolus . — William Brewster, Cambridge, Mass. 
1 Since writing the above I have examined this Long Island bird, which is 
now in the collection of the Brooklyn Historical Society. It proves to be a 
perfectly typical example of Falco rusticolus gryfalco in nearly mature 
plumage. 
