SKETCHES OF EUROPEAN ORNITHOLOGY. 
23 
with so small a foe. I once saw the same animal inflict a severe chastisement 
upon a very large Newfoundland Dog, on the sea-beach at Wardie, a bathing 
place near Edinburgh. This Dog of Mr. Johnston’s had been taught to retrieve, 
and was even a useful and willing attendant upon the gun. He was unfortunately 
suffered to fall too much into flesh, and consequently became at length too lazy 
to be valuable for any purpose in which activity was requisite. I was told, that 
shortly after he was brought to this country from the West-Indies, he ran down 
a Hare very readily; when I saw him, however, his plethoric aspect rendered such 
an idea excessively laughable. It has often occurred to me that these Dogs would 
make excellent Stag-hounds, combining in so eminent a degree strength, courage, 
swiftness, and fineness of smell. I wonder some of the Highland noblemen and 
gentlemen, who could afford to import a few couple of these Dogs from South- 
America, or the West-Indies, don’t make the experiment. 
. Having now concluded the natural history of the African and Spanish varieties 
of blood-hound, and being fearful of trespassing too long upon your time at 
present, I shall leave the remainder of this subject, viz., the British variety, for 
another paper. 
SKETCHES OF EUROPEAN ORNITHOLOGY. 
Gould’s “ Birds of Europe,” Part III. 
By Shirley Palmer, M.D. 
(Continued from Yol. IV., p. 473.) 
Jer Falcon, Falco Islandicus ,—Faucon Gerfaut, Fr .—Sparviere bianco di 
Moscovia, It .—der Islandische Falke, G .—constitutes the noble subject of this 
plate. Two figures, illustrative of the striking varieties of plumage in the young 
and adult, are admirably represented. From the observations of Mr. Gould, it 
appears probable that, under the common designation of Jer Falcon, two distinct 
species have hitherto been confounded. One of these, the true Jer Falcon of 
Iceland—Faucon d’lslande, Fr. ?—is regarded, by Falconers, as a much more rare, 
courageous, rapidly-flying, and valuable bird than the other—Gerfaut de-Norwege ? 
—commonly obtained from Norway. They are said to differ, also, in the com¬ 
parative length of wing with respect to the tail. The Jer Falcon is the type of 
the true Falcons, and, consequently, of the genus Falco as constituted by modern 
ornithologists. It is a native of Northern Europe, and occasionally visits the 
Orkney and Shetland isles. An accurate figure of this noble bird is given, by 
Werner, in Plate V. of the Atlas des Oiseaux d’Europe, and an interesting 
