MacFari.ane’s Gerfalcon ( Falco gyrfalco sacer ) in Maine. — 
Visiting Providence, R. I., in April last, my friend Mr. Frederick T. 
Jenckg mentioned that there was a specimen of some form of Gerfalcon 
in the Museum of Brown University in that city. I soon had the satisfac- 
tion of gazing at the bird. It was labelled “ var. sacer and I think correctly 
so, for it certainly is not candicans nor labradoraf. and is darker than any 
examples or plates of islandu x that I have examined. Corresponding with 
Professor J. W. P. Jenks, he has kindly written me in substance that the 
bird was sent alive from Katalidin Irou-M orks (Piscataquis Co., Maine) 
by Mr. C. II. Prouty to his bro her in Providence during December, 1876. 
It” had caught several hens, and, having pursued one under a barn through 
a small opening, was itself caught in the arms of a man as it came out. 
The Gerfalcon soon (lied; the wings were cut off, and the body was 
buried. Nearly a week afterwards a Mr. Adcock saw and picked up the 
wings from a stable floor, and, recognizing his old English la'con, called 
for the body, which he dug up and mounted. Professor Jenks happened 
to see the specimen, and secured it for the University collection. 
I think MacFarlane’s Gerfalcon has not before been known to occur in 
any portion of Eastern North America, nor at all outside of Arctic North- 
west America. The one now cited will make the third form of Gerfalcon 
known to have been taken in New England. 1 cannot ascertain for a cer- 
tainty that candicans has yet visited us. Mr. H. G. \ ennor records two 
examples at Montreal. The black Labrador bird has so far been the most 
frequent visitor to the Canadas, the Provinces, and the United States. 
I have record of several, one of which, now announced, was shot in Essex 
Co., Mass., a few years since, and is in the collection of the Essex Insti- 
tute. — H. A. Pl’rdik, Newton, Manx. 
+ Ml-. Ridgway, with whom I have lately had interesting correspondence on 
the Gerfalcon group, writes me that he agrees with Mr. J. H. Gurney (see 
Ibis, 1876, p. 234), that Falco obsolctus of Gmelin, based on Pennant’s “ Plain 
Falcon,” belongs to some race of Gerfalcon, but he believes that it should be 
assigned to the now better known dark Labrador bird, rather than to any plu- 
mage of islandus or gyrfalco ; also that it cannot relate to Buteo svxiinsoni , as 
associated by R. B. Sharpe. Mr. Ridgway still holds that sacer can be varie- 
tally separated from F. gyrfalco of Northern Europe and Asia, in contradis- 
tinction to the later views held by English writers. 
Ball. N. O.O. 4, July, 1878, p. /S'#-/??. 
