not observed in the British Isles. } 
85 
bird more used to civilized and persecuting man, without giving 
his readers due warning that, after all, it may not be strictly ap¬ 
plicable to the subject of his notice. He omits also to mention 
that the rich tawny hue of the under surface in some individuals 
of the Lammergeyer is probably owing to a stain, the effect of 
bathing in muddy water or of rolling in the sand with wet plu¬ 
mage ; certainly the specimens we see from the snowy peaks of 
the Alps and Pyrenees are without any trace of this brilliant 
colouring. 
We now come to the Falconidce ; and we are especially pleased 
to find Mr. Bree according a place to the true Gyrfalcon (F. gyr- 
falco, Schl.), which we consider to form a race, to call it by the 
least worthy name, perfectly distinct from either the Greenland 
or Iceland birds (F. candicans , Gm. and F. islandicus, Sab.), with 
which it has so often been confounded. But our gratification 
is somewhat impaired by his insisting on calling it Falco gyr- 
falco norvegicus, —not so much on the ground that the binominal 
system of nomenclature should be strictly adhered to (for we 
consider that its advantages are so universally recognized, that a 
trifling deviation from the letter of the law can make no mate¬ 
rial difference), as because this name would imply there was 
also a <{ gyrfalco” not “ norvegicus .” Naturalists are apt to 
forget that, if any respect should be shown to old authors, it 
is especially in the case of these noble birds, which at all times 
and in all places were the companions of our forefathers, and 
whose every peculiarity was studied in a manner that now-a-days 
no one, except an occasional votary of the ancient recreation, 
has any conception of. No falconer in time past or present 
would ever think of calling an “Icelander” a “Gyrfalcon.” 
With him the Gyrfalcon is, and always has been, the large falcon 
obtained from Norway, or accidentally in more southern coun¬ 
tries, with dark, almost Peregrine-like cheeks, a stout body, short 
tail, and other distinctive marks which it is unnecessary here to 
describe; and to apply its proper name to the denizen of another 
land sounds to him as irregular and unmeaning as when we 
hear our Transatlantic cousins call a bird akin to our Fieldfare 
by the familiar name of “ Robin.” It must be remembered 
that many of the earlier naturalists, if not falconers themselves, 
