Analecta Ornithologica 
Leonard Stejneger 
XXVIII. On Gyrfalcons. 
In Scandinavia only two Gyrfalcons are known to occur, the 
common so-called ‘Brown Gyrfalcon,’ or the typical Falco gyr- 
falco , and the form with whitish black-streaked head, usually 
attributed to Iceland and South Greenland (cf. Collett, N. Mag. 
Natur. XXVI, 1 88 x , p. 329). Both of these were known to 
Linnasus, who described the former as F. gyrfalco , the latter 
as F. rusticolus. The first of these names is not any longer a 
matter of dispute. The latter ought not be, for his diagnosis : 
“Falco cera palpebris pedibusque luteis, corpore cinereo al- 
boque undulato, collari albo. F[abitat in Svecia” is clear 
enough, and better than liis diagnosis of F. gyrfalco. He 
seems not, however, to have recognized the white Gyrfalcon, 
which was well known to Brunnich. The latter describes, under 
the specific name of islandus , three different birds, which he 
considers “sine dubio varietates quas soli Danias Regi vendere 
tenentur Islandi.” The two first, his No. 7 and No. 8, are evi- 
dently only stages of the White Gyrfalcon ; No. 9 is an equally 
undoubted description of the bird which we think Linnaeus 
called rusticolus . It will thus be seen that Briinnich’s species 
F. islandus is a compound one, embracing both the white and 
the dark species of Greenland and Iceland. The author who 
next treated of these birds from autopsy was Otto Fabricius, 
who in his celebrated ‘Fauna Groenlandica,’ published in 1780, 
applied the name Falco islandus to the white species — “Falco 
albus maculis cordatis nigricantibus, rectricibus albis nigro- 
fasciatis” — to which he expressly refers Briinnich’s No. 8 as the 
young, and No. 7 as the old, while No. 9, the dark one, he with- 
out hesitation quotes as a synonym of his F. rusticolus. Fab- 
l'icus, therefore, restricted the name islandus to the white 
species. To us who accept Briinnich’s names the species must 
stand as 
Falco islandus Brunnich as restricted by Fabricius , 
while English authors— starting from the 12th edition— will 
have to call it 
Falco islandus Fabricius , 1780. 
It is a matter of regret that Gmelin when editing the Systema 
Natuialis eight years later overlooked Fabricius’s* ‘Fauna 
Groenlandica, thus committing the blunder of applying Brun- 
nich s islandus to No. 9, the dark one, while he treated No. 7 
and No. 8, respectively, as var. p albus and var. 7 maculatus , 
names occurring four pages earlier than his Falco candicans and 
F. candicans p islandicus , which this arch-compiler named from 
Brisson, not for a moment suspecting that he on an earlier page 
had given them other names ! It would have been of very 
little consequence what Gmelin did if later authors had not per- 
petuated his blunder, though we may add at once that not all 
have done so. It is, perhaps, not possible to get up a pluri- 
morum auctorum list, but the White Gyrfalcon ( Falco candi- 
cans plur. auct.) may still be quoted as Falco islandus 
t Seebohm, in his Hist. Brit. B. Eggs, quotes 'Faber' instead of Fabricius. Faber 
and Fabricius were two different persons ! 
