apparatus does not vary in accordance with its length, being
occasionally absolutely broadest in the Gyr-Falcon; and,
further, that the disproportion is chiefly caused by the elongation
of the coracoid hones in the Icelander, where the
sternum alone has an average length of 3-65608 in., against
3-47143 in. in the true Gryr-Falcon.
As a constant inhabitant of Europe, the Iceland Falcon is
only known in the island whence it takes its name, and is
there by no means uncommon, breeding in precipitous cliffs
or ranges of rock bordering the numerous lakes, which are
thronged during the summer by innumerable water-fowl, and
thereby securing a plentiful supply of food for its offspring,
though it is stated that Ptarmigans form the chief prey of
the adults, and such of the young as pass the winter in that
country, when it is comparatively deserted by aquatic birds.
Most of the young, however, wander southward at that
season, and examples annually visit the Faeroes, Norway,
Denmark, Germany, and Holland. In the British Islands,
more probably have occurred than is the case with the
Greenland Falcon, but of the many so-called “ Gyr-Falcons ”
recorded as seen or taken here, the number which can be
with certainty determined to be Icelanders is perhaps rather
fewer—possibly the less conspicuous plumage of the latter
does not attract so much attention.
In the Shetlands, Dr. Saxby states that though formerly a
regular visitor, it is now only occasionally seen. Mr. Robert
Gray says that, between 1835 and 1851, several were shot in
the northern counties of Scotland, and that within the last
four years he is satisfied that four or five have been killed in
the western parts of that kingdom. An Iceland Falcon,
which had for some time haunted a farm-yard, preying on
the poultry, was shot on Yallay, one of the outer Hebrides,
in September, 1865. This bird is in the collection of Dr.
Dewar of Glasgow. Another, a fine male, was shot in the
October of the preceding year in North Uist, and a third was
about the same time washed ashore on the west side of that
island. Mr. Gray also learned from Mr. Elwes that a fourth
was shot on Islay, and mentions one that was trapped in
. 1 1 .. X
1866 at Glendaruel, in Argyllshire. As regards England,
Thompson quotes from a letter of Mr. Hancock’s the occurrence
of a young bird at Bellingham, on the North Tyne, in
January, 1845, which was then in the collection of Mr. Charles
Adamson of Newcastle; and this capture is also recorded by
Mr. Bold, in ‘ The Zoologist ’ for that year. The same
letter also notices an Iceland Falcon, in its first plumage,
killed at Normanby near Guisborougli, in Yorkshire, in
March, 1837, of which a brief description, by the late Mr.
Hogg, appeared in the volume of the useful periodical just
mentioned. Both these birds are now in Mr. Hancock’s collection.
Mr. Borrer possesses an adult Iceland Falcon shot at
Mayfield, in Sussex, in January, 1845. These, with an immature
specimen in the Norwich Museum, killed at Inver-
broome, in Ross-shire, 1851—probably one of those already
included by Mr. Gray—and a young male from Scotland, in
the possession of Mr. Gurney, Junior, are all the British
examples which at the present time can be, with any amount
of certainty, referred to the Iceland Falcon.
This bird is believed to breed in Greenland, but only in the
southern parts, and seems to be of not very rare occurrence
along the coast of Labrador, where, according to Audubon,
it breeds; but the examples figured as having been shot from
their nests by him, are obviously immature, and not adult,
as he and his party imagined. I t is worthy of remark that
many of the specimens obtained from Labrador are very dark
in colour, but they seem to he always birds of the year. To
judge from Richardson’s account, it is not uncommon in the
Fur-Countries, where it, as well as Falco candicans, probably
breeds. On the western side of the continent, adults
have been obtained in Alaska, where it is said by Mr. Dali
to be resident, and usually confined to the mountains, breeding,
according to Professor Spencer F. Baird, both there and
on the Lower Mackenzie River indifferently on trees* and
cliffs. The plumage of specimens from this territory transmitted
by that naturalist to England for comparison, differs
In Lapland Falco gyrfalco, though usually breeding on cliffs, occasionally
has its nest in a tree.—Ootheca Wolleyana, pp. 95, 96.
VOL. I . H