. y : {* , pe ‘ ses ‘ 1 > . 7 ahr re We
“ Midway between Asia and America this white Falcon was seen at sea, a little north of Behring’s Island,
by Mr. Bannister. Crossing the Pacific, it is, according to Professor Schlegel, known to the Japanese ; and
Mr. ster. ssing

it certainly occurs on the continent of Asia, though whether its character in Siberia is that of a native, or

So

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 Be icane: which must be Greenland Falcons, are caught annually in their passage over the Caspian
Sea, and that they are highly prized by the falconers of Syria and Persia.’ ”

Two very distinct phases of plumage are found among individuals of this bird, one of which may be
characterized as light, the other as dark; these, by some naturalists, are regarded as races only, and not
as indicative of a distinction of species. Examples of both have from time to time made their appearance
in our islands ; indeed these occurrences are too numerous to be detailed here zm 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 of his father ‘‘ Sir George Musgrave, Bart., of Edenhall, in Cumberland, was shot in the preceding
January by a blacksmith near Crosby Ravensworth, in Westmoreland, whilst in the act of eating a Grouse.
tise very fine specimen of 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 bim, 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 of the year, of the white race, as

the British Museum, is of the

the bird killed by Lord Cawdor’s gamekeeper in Pembrokeshire, and now 1
dark one. It was from this latter specimen that the figure of what is termed the Jerfaleon in my ‘ Birds
of Europe’ was taken ; it is also the original of the figure, likewise so termed, in the three editions of the
late Mr. Yarrell’s ‘ History of British Birds ;’ it has therefore an historical value.

Little is known of the nidification of this Falcon ; but it probably differs bat slightly from that of its ally
the I. tslandus. 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, or dull red, or are mottled with pale brownish orange on a white ground.”

A few words of 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 of the upper surface; the larger figure the adult, distinguished by having a
small, somewhat heart-shaped spot at the tip of each feather of the upper surface, faint specks of brownish
black on the under surface, and the tail creamy white.