JER-FALCON.
HEBOG CHWYLDRO, IN ANCIENT BRITISH.
Falco Islandicus, LATHAM. GMELIN. Falco Gyrfalco, LINNAEUS. BEWICK.
Gyrfalco candicans, FLEMING.
Falco—To cut with a bill or hook. Islandicus—Of, or belonging to Iceland.

I am compelled to say, 'not proven,' with reference to the arguments of Mr. John Hancock, read before the British Association at Newcastle, with a view to establish the supposition that two species are confounded together in the one bird before us. It may I think, be depended upon that the white plumage is the token of advanced age, as the dusky brown spots are of youth. The indentations on the bill are unquestionably alterable, and as to the specific difference endeavoured to be established from the bars on the tail, both the varieties have been found in one and the same individual specimen.
This noble bird may well be regarded as the personification of the 'beau ideal' of the true Falcons, at the head of which it pre-eminently stands. Its courageous spirit, together with its rarity even in its native countries, and the difficulty of procuring it, made it highly estimated in the days of falconry, as it was qualified and disposed to fly at the larger kinds of the 'game' of those days, such as herons and cranes. Its education was indeed difficult, but it was sure to repay the amount of patience and perseverance required for training it for the aristocratic pastime so highly thought of in olden times.
I am indebted to J. Mc' Intosh, Esq., of Milton Abbey, Dorsetshire, for a quaint old treatise on the subject of Hawking, as one of other former 'countrey contentments,' but I am obliged against my will, to omit much which I should be glad, if space permitted, to insert. My thanks however are not the less due to him and other obliging correspondents.
The hyperborean regions are the native place of this Falcon: thence indeed its specific name. It occurs in the Shetland and Orkney Islands, but is considered by Mr. Low, in his 'Fauna Orcadensis,' to be only a visitant even there, and not a permanent resident. Iceland, Greenland, and the parallel parts of North America, Siberia, and Northern Asia, are its proper haunts, as also Norway, Russia, and Lapland, and it is occasionally met with in the northern parts of Germany, and the south of Sweden.
The Jer has been but rarely killed in this country: a few in Scotland, and still fewer in England, Wales, and Ireland. But a large flight of the Greenland Falcon, so called, occurred on the West Coast of the last-named in June, 1883, and four were had. In York-shire, one is said to have been had in the year 1847, in the month of March: another was shot in the year 1837, March 13th., in the parish of Sutton-upon-Derwent, near York, and was kept alive for some months by Mr. Allis, of York, after refusing food for the first three or four days. Another in the year 1837, in the middle of the month of March, on the moors near Guisborough, in Cleveland. It was a young bird. One was shot in Devonshire, on the Lynher river, in the month of February, 1834. Polwhele has also noticed this specimen. A young bird was killed in the parish of Bellingham, in Northumberland, in the middle of January, 1845. Two are recorded by Thomas Edmonston, Jun., Esq., as having been killed in Shetland, where he also says that it is only a straggler. The Rev. J. Pemberton Bartlett speaks of it as 'rare' in Kent; one was shot near Margate, in the year 1835. One was seen by the Revs. A. and H. Matthews, on the 10th. of October, 1847, near Tetsworth, in Oxfordshire, in the act of devouring a wood-pigeon. They observed it again a few days afterwards near the same spot. Another had been shot a few years previous near Henley-on-Thames; both of these were in immature plumage. Another was caught in a trap some years ago near Brigg, in Lincolnshire, on a rabbit warren named Manton Common. I believe one in Pembrokeshire, on the estate of Lord Cawdor; and another on Bungay Common, in the county of Suffolk; one was shot in the county of Northumberland. In Sussex one, at Balsdean. In Cornwall two, at the Lizard and Port Eliot. In the same year mentioned above, one was seen by W. M. E. Milner, Esq., M.P., near Thurso, in Caith-nesshire, also one in October, 1863, at Tandlaw Moss, by Mr. Scott, gamekeeper to His Grace the Duke of Buccleuch; one near Aberdeen; and one killed in Sutherlandshire, in the winter of 1835. One in Bosshire in the summer of 1888. One seen by Mr. Bullock, in Stronsa, one of the Orkney Islands.
In Ireland, but three specimens have occurred, (described as being of the other supposed species,) one on the wing over a rabbit warren, near Dunfanaghy, in the county of Donegal; another near Drumboe Castle in the same county; and the third in the year 1803, near Randalstown, in the county of Antrim, others since: eight in the winter of 1833-4.
The flight of the Jer-Falcon, which resembles that of the Peregrine, but is more lofty and swifter, is astonishingly rapid: it has been computed that the bird flies, when at its speed, at the rate of one hundred and fifty miles an hour. It is said to use its wings with more action than is required in the sailing motion of some species. It captures it prey by rising above them, hovering for a moment, and then descending upon them and generally with unerring aim; not, however, perpendicularly, but with a literal stoop. If it misses its first stroke, it again ascends over its victim, and repeats the attack.
The food of this species consists of the smaller animals and the larger birds, such as hares and rabbits, geese, grouse, partridges, whimbrels, curlews, guillemots, ducks, plovers, and other sea and land fowl.
The Jer-Falcon breeds not only in the highest and most inaccessible rocks, but also occasionally in cliffs which are of lower elevation, both those of the sea coast, and those of inland lakes, and when engaged in the task of incubation, is particularly daring in attacking any aggressor.
The nest is composed of sticks and roots, and is lined with wool moss, sea-weed, or probably any soft substance suitable for the purpose which the builder can procure. It is supposed to be in the habit of appropriating to itself the deserted nests of other birds. The eggs are believed to be of a light yellowish brown colour, dotted with rusty red, with here and there an occasional patch of the same; or dull white, mottled all over with pale reddish brown. They are said to be two or three in number.
It is impossible not to be struck by the general resemblance of this species, especially in plumage, and partially also in shape, to the Snowy Owl, its noble companion in the icy regions of the north. When of full age the whole plumage is white. I have seen perfectly immaculate specimens in the possession of Mr. Hugh Reid, of Doncaster. The whole plumage is close and well set. Length, from twenty-two inches to two feet; bill, rather short, but thick and strong, much hooked, and of a pale blue or greenish grey colour. Much stress has been laid upon the tooth, as it is called, as establishing a specific difference, but 'me judice' it is by no means an unfailing mark, being worn down by attrition, and varying in different individuals; cere, dull yellow; iris, dull reddish brown.
The female resembles the male except in size, being rather larger, and the spots are broader, especially on the breast and sides. In the young bird the bill is dark blue, tipped with black ; cere, bluish; iris, dark brown. All the upper parts are of a brown ash-colour; the feathers being edged with white : a dark streak descends from the corner of the bill down the side of the throat; all the feathers are margined with paler colour. The wings, nearly as long as the tail; the under parts brown, gradually becoming white, with large longitudinal brown spots; tail, barred with light brown; legs, greyish blue, or blue tinged with yellow; claws, dusky.
In birds of less mature age, and which are by far the most ordin-arily met with, the head, crown, and neck, are pure white, or white with a few brownish black spots or streaks; the latter is rather short and thick, at least in its plumage, in some degree in this respect resembling the Owls. The nape, chin, and throat, pure white; breast, white or slightly spotted or lined as the other parts; back, more or less spotted and mottled with blackish brown. The wings are rather long, being, when closed, about four inches shorter than the tail; the second and third, and the first and fourth quills are respectively of nearly equal length; primaries, white, their tips dark and narrowly edged with white; larger and lesser under wing coverts, pure white.
The tail, long, and slightly rounded at the end. In some specimens it is white, and in others is barred alternately with blackish brown and white, or greyish white; the outer feathers are about half an inch shorter than those in the centre; tail coverts, white. The legs, bright yellow, or bluish grey, according to age; (Montagu says bluish ash-colour, and Bewick pale blue, but this is in the young bird;) they are short and robust, feathered more than half way down, and covered in front transversely with oblong scales, and behind with small round scales; toes, yellow, and covered with small scales; the second and fourth are nearly equal in length; the third the longest; the hind, one the shortest; underneath they are very rough. The claws black and strong; the hind one being the longest.
It is believed that all, or nearly all, the true Falcons, assume the full adult plumage at their first moult, which for the most part takes place when they are between three quarters of a year and a year and a quarter old. The young birds may be told by the markings on their feathers being lengthwise, and in the full-plumaged birds crosswise.
Montagu describes a bird, which he says appears to be a variety of this species, as follows:—' It is white, with a few scattered spots of dusky black on the upper part of the body, and the head streaked with the same ; the wings and tail, black, the latter with a band of white at the end, and a little white at the base; the quills slightly tipped with white; the secondary quills and under coverts, elegantly barred with black and white. The wings were very short in proportion to the size of the bird, for if the primary quills had been closed, they would certainly not have reached near the end of the tail.'

"Ne is there Hawk, that mounteth on her pearch,
Whether high towering, or accoasting low But the measure of her flight doth know,
And all her prey and all her dyet know."
SPENSER.