A History of North American Birds, Land Birds. Volume 3. Robert Ridgway
parts with longitudinal stripes of dark plumbeous; lower parts usually conspicuously striped. Hab. Greenland (in the breeding-season); in winter, occasionally wandering into the northern portions of Europe and North America … var. candicans.
Lower tail-coverts always with markings. A tinge of ashy-blue more or less prevalent above. Young dusky above.
Head and neck above abruptly lighter than the back. Young plain grayish-brown above, with conspicuous whitish borders to the feathers.
2. Adult. Upper parts white, passing into bluish posteriorly; everywhere (except on head and neck) with sharply defined, transverse (not crescentic, but continuous) bars of dark plumbeous. Abdomen and flanks with transverse spots of the same. Young without irregular light mottling to the plumage above, and with broad longitudinal stripes beneath. Hab. Iceland and Southern Greenland, in the breeding-season; in winter, south into Northeastern United States, and Northern Europe … var. islandicus.
Head and neck above abruptly darker than the back. Young (of var. sacer) variegated grayish-brown above, without light borders to the feathers.
3. Adult. Top of the head streaked with whitish; back with sharply defined, continuous, narrow transverse bars, of creamy-white. Hab. Interior regions of Continental Arctic America (Slave Lake, Yukon, and McKenzie River district) … var. sacer.
4. Adult. Top of head not streaked with whitish; back without sharply defined bars of the same. Hab. Continental Arctic Europe (Scandinavia) and Siberia. Migrating south, in winter, to Bengal (Hardwicke) … var. gyrfalco.48
b. Lower parts with dusky predominating, or wholly dusky.
5. Adult. Almost entirely dusky, without well-defined markings anywhere. Hab. Littoral regions of the Hudson Bay Territory and Labrador … var. labradora.
2. F. lanarius. Wing, 11.50–16.00; tail, 6.60–9.50; culmen, .70–1.00; tarsus, 1.90–2.40; middle toe, 1.65–2.00. Ground-color varying from pale grayish-plumbeous to dark sepia-brown; beneath white, with sparse markings, these coalesced into a broken patch on the flanks. Adult. Above obscurely barred transversely with pale ashy and brownish-dusky, the former prevailing posteriorly, the latter anteriorly; a lighter nuchal band. Spots on the sides and flanks transverse. Young. Above brown, varying from grayish-drab to dark sepia, the feathers usually bordered with paler (rusty in youngest individuals); markings beneath all longitudinal.
a. Outer webs of tail-feathers with large well-defined light spots; outer webs of the primaries sometimes with light spots on the basal portion; secondaries without distinct spots on the outer webs. Lower tail-coverts immaculate.
Wing, 13.65–16.00; tail, 8.40–9.50; culmen, .85–1.00; tarsus, 1.95–2.15; middle toe, 1.85–1.95. Top of the head white, with narrow streaks of dark brown. Hab. Central and Eastern Europe, Western Asia, and adjoining portions of Africa … var. lanarius.49
b. Outer webs of tail-feathers without distinct light spots, or without any at all; outer webs of primaries with no trace of spots; secondaries with light spots on outer webs. Lower tail-coverts sparsely spotted.
Wing, 12.00–14.25; tail, 7.60–9.00; culmen, .75–.90; tarsus, 2.15–2.40; middle toe, 1.70–2.00. Top of head brown, with narrow black streaks. Adult. Above with obscure transverse spots of bluish. Young. Above with feathers bordered with rusty … var. polyagrus.
Wing, 11.50; tail, 6.60; culmen, .70; tarsus, 1.90; middle toe, 1.65. Above uniform dark brown, with a faint plumbeous cast, the feathers without trace of light or rusty edges; outer web of tail-feathers without trace of light spots. Hab. Mexico … var. mexicanus.50
Wing, 13.60–14.30; tail, 8.25–9.00; culmen, .80–.87; tarsus, 1.85–1.90; middle toe, 1.85–1.90. Colors similar to the last; entire auriculars white; mustache narrow and conspicuous. Hab. Southern Asia … var. jugger.51
The only point of difference in the external anatomy between the Lanner Falcons and Gerfalcons consists in the different degree of feathering on the upper part of the tarsus; this is much denser and extends farther down and more around the posterior face in the Gerfalcons, but they, being inhabitants of a very northern latitude, need this protection against the rigor of the climate. These slight specific differences are illustrated by the figures on page 1430. The same difference is observable in many birds whose habitat extends through a great range of latitude, as, for instance, the Pediocætes phasianellus, the northern race of which has the feathers covering the base of the toes so long as to reach beyond the claws and nearly conceal them, while in the southern form (var. columbianus) the toes are almost completely naked.
My determination of the number and character of the geographical races of F. gyrfalco is the result of a very careful critical examination of over sixty specimens, aided by the important conclusions of Mr. Hancock (Annals and Magazine of Natural History, 2d ser., XIII, 110; London, 1834), Schlegel (Falcones, Muséum d’Histoire Naturelle des Pays-Bas, 1862), Pelzeln (Uebersicht der Geier und Falken der Kaiserlichen ornithologischen Sammlung, April, 1863), and Alfred Newton (History of British Birds, revised ed., part 1, June, 1871, pp. 36–52, and Proc. Acad. Nat. Sc. Philadelphia, July, 1871, pp. 94, 95), in their important papers bearing upon this subject, which, though they each express the peculiar individual views of the writer, together clear up pretty satisfactorily the problem of the number, character, and habitats of the several races, as well as the different phases of variation to which each is subject.
43139, ♀. ½
Falco sacer.
43139, ♀. ¼
5482, ♀. ½
Falco polyagrus.
43139, ♀. ½
5482, ♀. ½
In studying the F. lanarius, I have experienced most discouraging difficulties from the want of sufficient series of the Old World races, and from the unsatisfactory character of most descriptions and figures of them, besides being much perplexed by the confusion of their synonymy by different authors. In consequence of this, my diagnoses of the four races of which alone I have seen examples may be very unsatisfactory as regards the characters by which they may be most readily distinguished. Having seen the adult of only a single one of these four races, I am therefore compelled to base my differential characters upon the immature stages.
In addition to the four races of F. lanarius characterized above, there are several geographical forms belonging to the Old World, chiefly intertropical Asia and Africa. These are the var. babylonicus, Scl. and Irby, (Gray’s Hand List, I, p. 20, No. 173,) of Southeastern Europe and Western Asia; var. barbarus, L. (Gray’s Hand List, p. 20, No. 174), of Northern Africa; and var. tanypterus, Licht. (Gray’s Hand List, No. 175), of both the preceding regions, which Mr. Gurney writes me “is simply the intertropical race of F. lanarius, from which it only differs in being of a darker shade throughout.” The F. saker, Schleg. (Gray’s Hand List, No. 176), seems, to judge from the descriptions and figures which I have seen, to be also merely a form of the same species, but I have seen no specimens of it.
Accipiter falco freti hudsonis, Bris. Orn. I, 356, 1763. A. gyrfalco, Briss. Orn. I, 370, pl. xxx, f. 2, 1763. Falco rusticolus, Fabr. Faun. Grœn. p. 55, 1780.—Lath. Syn. Supp. I, 15, 1781. F. candicans, Gmel. Syst.
Wing, 13.00–14.50; tail, 9.30; culmen, .98; tarsus, 2.50; middle toe, 1.92.