“ On my way from Hammerfest,” says Mr. Wolley, “ I intended to visit the Falcons’ nests of which I had heard
from Lassi; but when I got to Kautokeino I hesitated, for several reasons : the snow might go any day - and I
had some cause to doubt the truth of the account. However, I had the good luck to find his dram,, who said that
his master had the day before pointed out the rock where the nest was. Getting three Reindeer, we started at
once, and in the course of time came to the small cliffs in the narrow vaUey where the river lay We had not
long left the track on the river, when a Falcon flew up from the rock where the nest was supposed to be, and soon
afterwards settled on the trunk of a dead tree, once or twice uttering a e ry . I now knew there was a nest - and in
a few moments more I saw it, looking very large and with a black space about it, as though it was in the mouth of
little cave n, the face of the rock. This was a joyful moment, but not so mueh so as when the hen bird flew off
and settled on a little stump some thirty yards from the nest. We were ascending the hill, and might be about
fifty yards off when she left the nest. I took off my shoes, though there was deep snow everywhere except just
j W H 1 ’ 6rSt tncd 11 from aboTe; but il seemed scarcely practicable. Then I went below • and
with the Lapp to support my feet, and Ludwig to give me additional help with a pole, I managed to climb up. Just
I— M M f S B ^ Then I drew myself, and saw the four eggs to myrigU hand looking ■
m the middle of a large nest Again I waited, to get steady for the final reach. I had only a bit of stone to stand
upon not bigger than a walnut, and frozen to the surface of the ledge, which sloped outwards. I put two of
fre'shffmade0 H m M ‘7 1 1 P°Ck8' ; “ ld cautioasly ™thdrew\ The nest appeared to have been quite
freshly made. The sticks of which it was composed were thick, barkless, and bleached; and the only linum was
a bundle or two of coarsish dry grass. The eggs were handed down in a glove at the end of a pole^ and when
■ H i f e V T " | g feet w c PBt in the right Pisces and I descended in ought a box, with hay and on the I2th of May had the ^ safe ^ Mnoniovara ^ safety. I had luckily
pei-haps an inch and a half long, with heads as big as horsebeans.
“ An egg, from a nest in a tree, was brought to Muoniovara on the 18th of June, 1857, by a man who said
it was * e egg of Astur palumlarw. The tree in which the nest was placed was on the north side of a very
large marsh, with no pines between it and the tree; and the nest was placed just at the top. I t might be
seven fathoms high. I can hardly doubt the egg is a Gyrfalcon’s.”
Tlie above passages are extracted from the first volume of the ■ O otheca Wolleyana,’ to which I most refer
m , readers for many other interesting details respecting the discovery o f the eggs o f this species.
“ I have not had the luck,” says the late Mr. Wheelwright, in his ‘Spring and Summer in Lapland ’ “ to
examine many specimens of this Falcon; but all I have seen appeared to be smaller than the Iceland F a t a l and
pdp8 b r^n o t 7 T l 'e” rme ’ and | mind !s clearly a distinct species, entirely confined to the Scandinavian
fells but not to Lapland alone, for it is met with as far south as the Dovre fell in Norway. The eggs brougM to
were of a^nfform b r i ^ d n s ^ W,hnSaUr “ “ “ No™ P a n frontier, about fifty miles west of Quiddock,
“ The L”P name of this Falcon is • Hip Spenning.’ Spenning is the name for every bird of prey—Hawks Owls
’ 8 WOrd rlpa K added on “c cctct of the havoc this Gyrfalcon commits among the Ptarmigan.” ’
I can confirm Mr. Wheelwright’s assertion that the Gyrfalcon inhabits the Dovrc fje ld ; for, althoogh I
did not see ,t during my visit to that elevated region in July 1856, a large rock was pointed out to me by a
most trustworthy person as a place where the bird annually constructs its nest and rears its young.
held f f l W m thalf ! if 0uld « 7 sbrae account o f the estimation in which this noble bird was formerly
held m the palmy days o f falconry, when ,t was commonly employed to capture the Crane, the Wild Goose
. d the Bustard ; but as that sport is now nearly extinct, a t least in Europe, I can o f my own knowledge
t0C01nm,,nicate ° " the s"bj cct’ bat content myself by referring those o f my
i B I *° thc f l S ™ 9 have been published from the dayl
the B t ; ! ? ° the l>resent l,me’ and especially to Messrs. Salvin and Brodrick’s S Falconry 1
the British Islands and my friend Professor Schlegel and Mr. A. Verster van Wulverhorst’s magnificent
Tra.te de Fauconnene. I t will not, however, be superfluous to mention that the present bird was held in
as great, if not greater estimation than any other member o f the family to which it belongs
cannot consistently close these remarks without recording the kindness o f the late Mr WoUey in
presenting me with two beautiful adult Gyrfalcons obtained during his sojourn in Lapland. These specimens
friend Ce ^ COl'CC,1° n’ a "d Wil1 eVW be " itb ¡"‘» « t as the gift of an amiable and L e n t e d
The Plate represents an adult, and a young bird o f the first autumn, about the natural size.