JJfblf'¿JR'Jhrfiter debet/THh/ XALCO 0YKEALCO, Lvov.
Norwegian. P a le cm, adult and young
m i
S-a I 1; Ì ■ ■ ■ m u s s i i s i s
FALCO GYRFALCO, Linn.
Norwegian or Gyrfalcon.
Falco gyrfalco, Linn. Fann. Suec., p. 64.
j t •— norvegicus, Wolley, Sale Cat. of Eggs, 1858.
— — (Hierofalco) candicaiu, var. y. gyrfalco, Bias. List of Birds of E u r., Eng. edit., p. 3.
— __ q-------:----- ) gyrfalco, Gray, Hand-list of Birds,; p. 18.
Without a few words of explanation it might appear to some of my readers that 1 am extending the present
work beyond its proper limits by figuring on the opposite Plate a bird which has never yet been identified as
a visitor to the British Islands; but such is not my wish. I t is given because the chances are that, although
not recognized, the bird does occasionally visit us, and that I may be enabled to throw a clearer light upon a
subject of great importance, than I could do by leaving it undelineated. To render my meaning more
apparent, I must inform those of my readers who are not well versed in ornithology that it is a question
among naturalists w h e t h e r the Norwegian, the Iceland, and the Greenland Falcons are one and the same
species, o r whether each possesses characters o f sufficient importance to distinguish it from its congeners.
Whatever conclusions some may have arrived a t with regard to their specific value, I for my own part
cannot but regard them a** distinct from each other.
The true Gyrfalcon or Norwegian bird is by far the darkest in colour, and somewhat the smallest in size,
the fully adult male being but little larger and having wings scarcely longer than the female o f Falco
peregrinus, to which it assimilates rather closely in colouring and in possessing the beautiful greyish bloom
which pervades the plumage o f that species. These differences (by which the bird may be a t once distinguished
from its congeners) being so much more readily appreciated by the eye than they can be conveyed
to the mind In the most accurate description forms an additional reason for giving the accompanying*
Plate. The young (Wrfalcon, on leaving the nest, is much darker than a young Icelander of the same
a„g d )e hack, wings, and tail being of a nearly uniform blackish brown, while the feathers of the under
surface (which are also o f the same colour) are but narrowly edged with white.
“ No falconer in time past o r present,” says the reviewer o f Dr. Bree’s * Birds of Europe/ in ‘ T he Ibis
for 1859, “ would ever think o f calling an ‘ Icelander’ a ‘ Gyrfalcon.’ With him the Gyrfalcon is and
always has been the large Falcon obtained in Norway, with dark, almost Peregrine-like cheeks, a «tout body,
short tail, and other distinctive marks which it is unnecessary here to describe. At the present time many
people have hut a faint idea o f what a Gyrfalcon is ; but iye beg to assure our readers that the different
words ‘ Gyrfalco,’ ‘ Gyrfalcon/ ‘ Gerfaut/ and ‘ Geierfalke ’ should never be applied to any but the great
Falcon o f Scandinavia. That the true Gyrfalcon has occurred in this country we certainly think probable;
but it must be borne in mind that nearly all the large northern Falcons killed here are young birds of the
year/and that it is not easy, though, we think, always possible, to detect the Icelander from the Gyrfalcon
when immature.
The countries inhabited !>v the Gyrfalcon are Norway, Lapland, and F inland; in all probabdity it is also
found in the northern parts’ o f Russia, if not in Siberia. It habitually breeds in the three countries first
mentioned, and probably also in the two latter. In autumn many o f the young and, doubtless, some o f the
old birds proceed directly south, and winter in more temperate latitudes; thus it is a t that season that it
appears in Holland. _ . .
With respeet to the habit* and manners of these large Falcons as detailed by the older authors, it is by no
means an easy matter to distinguish to which of them some o f their remarks apply j hut there can be no
doubt as to wbat hat been written respecting the nidification of the Gyrfalcon by that very estimable man
and correct o t « r r e r of nature, the late Mr. John Wolley. who not only sought out the breeding-plaees of
this noble Fak»» uu! many other o f our rarer birds, but passed several winters in Lapland for the purpose
o f carrying out researches in the ensuing springs.
■■ Mr Wolley w I believe,” says Professor Newton, “ the first naturalist able to give from his own observation
any particular, of the breeding of this noble bird. The eurious fact that the Gyrfalcon, like so many other
Accipitrn, adapts itwif to circumstances (breeding in trees when rocks are wanting near places t it a
food for its offspring) *»¡11 not escape notice. I t was not untUfcthe fourth summer of Mr. Wolley* res
Lapland, that he became acquainted wiflr this fact; and then, as his remarks show, he was justly scepti co