THE GREENLAND FALCON. 
Falco groenlandicus. 
Plate XXXIY. 
Under the name of the Gyrfalcon three distinct species were formerly confounded—the White or Greenland 
Falcon, the Iceland Falcon, and the Norwegian Falcon. In 1823, M. Brehm appears to have for the first time 
clearly distinguished the two former of these birds. Herein he was followed by Mr. John Hancock, who, in 
1838, brought the subject before the British Association for the Advancement of Science, at their meeting at 
Newcastle-upon-Tyne. But at that time, Mr. Hancock, as M. Brehm before him, fell into the error of 
confounding the adult of the Greenland Falcon with the young of the same bird, and of describing the latter 
as brown, like the immature Iceland Falcon. In 1854, however, he was enabled fully to set to rights this 
misconception, and to announce that the Greenland bird was never dark in any of its stages, but invariably 
light-coloured from the nest. This opinion was grounded upon observations made upon living birds in the 
possession of the Zoological Society, backed by the inspection of upwards of one hundred and fifty specimens, 
and the careful examination of no less than seventy individuals. Mr. Hancock’s latter paper, which was 
published in the “Annals and Magazine of Natural History” (ser. 2, vol. xiii., p. 110), appears to have been 
somewhat neglected by ornithologists, and hence the confusion generally prevalent on this subject has never 
been entirely dispelled. But there is little doubt of the perfect correctness of his views, which, it may be 
remarked, are strictly in accordance with the traditions of Falconry, and are now shared by the highest 
authorities on these matters. 
The Greenland Falcon, as its name implies, is found chiefly in Greenland, though it is believed to occur 
also in Labrador. From these deserted regions the adults seldom wander to other lands, but the young birds 
in autumn and winter occur regularly in Iceland, and not unfrequently in the British islands and other 
localities still more remote from the place of their origin. They are, no doubt, driven away by their parents, 
as is the custom with most birds of prey, and perhaps follow the large flocks of Waterfowl, which are bred in 
the north, in their southern migrations. 
The very beautiful male of this Falcon, from which Mr. Wolf’s drawing was made in 1854, was obtained 
direct from Greenland, and moulted for several successive seasons in the Society’s Menagerie, without any 
perceptible change in the size or character of the spots, it having been received in a perfectly adult state. 
Another male bird, received from the same country in 1859, is still living in the Society’s Gardens. 
