REIKE VIG. 
274 
down affords such an important article of com¬ 
merce; but I have yet mentioned nothing con- 
cerning the Icelandic Falcon, which of all the 
hawk tribe is considered of the greatest value in 
falconry. This noble bird was, by the older or¬ 
nithologists, ’ classed among the varieties of the 
Linnaean Falco Gyrfalco , but by Gmelin referred 
to F. Candidas , in his edition of the Systema 
Naturae , and has since, by Doctor Latham and 
succeeding writers, been raised to the rank of a 
distinct species, under the name of F. islandicus . 
It possesses a plumage that varies in the different 
periods of its existence still more remarkably than 
that of other hawks; ec and hence,” as Doctor 
Shaw remarks, <c seems to have arisen the won- 
u derful discordance in the descriptions of authors, 
“ which have at length amounted to so confused 
a an assemblage of contradictory characters as 
“ almost to set at defiance all attempts to re- 
“ concile them.” Of the numerous varieties, the 
white is the most rare, and the most eagerly 
sought after by the natives, all that are taken of 
this color being reserved for the king of Denmark, 
who has set so high a value upon them, and so 
little upon the lives of his oppressed subjects, 
that a law has been enacted, declaring it death 
to any one who shall destroy one of these birds. 
In such estimation are they held, that his Danish 
Majesty has, for many years, considered them 
