“ Midway between Asia and America this white Falcon was seen at .sea, a little north o f Behring’s Island,
by Mr. Bannister. Crossing the Pacific, it is, according to Professor Schlegel, known to the Jap an ese; and
it certainly occurs on the continent of Asia, though whether its character iu Siberia is that o f a native, or
a visitor only, there is not at present enough evidence to decide. . . . Captain Salvin and Mr. Brodrick in
their ‘ Falconry in the British Islands,’ state that they ‘ have been informed by travellers that some few
large white Falcons, which must be Greenland Falcons, are caught annually in their passage over the Caspian
Sea, and that they are highly prized by the falconers o f Syria and Persia. ’ ”
Two very distinct phases o f plumage are found among individuals o f this bird, one of which may be
characterized as light, the other as d a rk ; these, by some naturalists, are regarded as races only, and not
as indicative of a distinction of species. Examples o f both have from time to time made their appearance
in our islands; indeed these occurrences are too numerous to be detailed here in extenso\ but I may mention
two of the more recent instances. In June 1865 Mr. R. C. Musgrave informed me that a fine example in the
possession o f his father “ Sir George Musgrave, Bart., o f Edenhall, in Cumberland, was shot in the preceding
January by a blacksmith near Crosby Ravensworth, in Westmoreland, whilst in the act o f eating a Grouse.
I t is a very fine specimen o f a Greenland Falcon, and is remarkable for its extreme whiteness, the breast
being perfectly white and the leg-feathers nearly so.” In the autumn of 1867 another fine individual was
observed at Loch Stack, in the western part of Sutherland, by Lord Belgrave (now Earl Grosvenor), who
informed me that he saw it strike down a Grouse before him, both falling in a little hollow; he crept
up to within ten yards, and threw his stick at the Falcon as it flew away. Lord Grosvenor tells me it was a
splendid white bird. Both these individuals were probably young birds o f the year, o f the white race, as
the bird killed by Lord Cawdor’s gamekeeper in Pembrokeshire, and now' in the British Museum, is o f the
dark one. I t was from this latter specimen that the figure of what is termed the Jerfalcon in my ‘ Birds
of Europe ’ was tak en ; it is also the original o f the figure, likewise so termed, in the three editions o f the
late Mr. Yarrell’s ‘ H istory o f British B ird s ;’ it has therefore an historical value.
Little is known of the nidification o f this Falcon ; but it probably differs but slightly from that o f its ally
the F. islandus. Three eggs in Mr. Wolley’s collection, said to have been procured by Captain Holboll in
Greenland, are described by Professor Newton as being “ suffused with pale reddish orange, having a few
spots of a darker orange-red, o r dull red, or are mottled with pale brownish orange on a white ground.”
A few words o f explanation are necessary to enable the reader to understand the accompanying Plate.
The middle figure represents an unusually light and beautiful young bird of the year, with tear-drop-like
markings on the whole o f the upper surface; the larger figure the adult, distinguished by having a
small, somewhat heart-shaped spot a t the tip o f each feather o f the upper surface, faint specks o f brownish
black on the under surface, and the tail creamy white.