ICELAND FALCON. 
‘23 
Islandicus which he proposes, never attains the variegated 
plumage of the Gyr or Greenland Falcon figured by 
Mr. Yarrell. 
The egg figured in the former edition was taken by Mr. 
Proctor, the curator of the Durham University Museum, 
from the nest of the true Iceland Falcon, whilst on a visit 
to that country. He had gone out for the purpose of col¬ 
lecting birds and their eggs, but did not reach the fa¬ 
vourite localities of the Iceland Falcon till the broods were 
flown. This was in the beginning of August, when he 
shot several full-grown young ones, and found some of the 
deserted nests; the one from which he took the egg then 
drawn was composed of sticks and roots, lined with wool, 
amongst which the egg, a rotten one, was embedded. He 
supposes that the nest may have been that of a raven, 
which is most probable, as it much resembled one. The 
remains of many birds, vvhimbrels, golden plovers, guil¬ 
lemots, and ducks, lay strewed about the nest. This nest 
and others which Mr. Proctor saw were all in the clifls, 
forming the boundary of fresli-water lakes, but none 
of them so high in the mountainous districts as he ex¬ 
pected to have found them. 
The eggs of the Iceland Falcon, of which I have several 
by me from the collections of Mr. Wilmot, Mr. Walter, 
and Mr. Wolley, and of which I have now seen a numer¬ 
ous series, do not vary much; they are never dark, like 
those of the peregrine falcon, but, like the figure of the 
plate, are mottled uniformly throughout, much more like 
eggs of the hobby than any other bird; and like them, 
too, they are sometimes almost white or sparingly freckled. 
An egg sent me from the collection of Mr. Salmon has 
very little colour, except at the larger end. 
