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(2020) 12:22

ORIGINAL PAPER

Falco lanarius: the contorted history of a poetical archetype and a taxonomic puzzle Giovanni Leonardi 1

&

Luke J. Sutton 1,2,3

Received: 25 April 2019 / Accepted: 16 October 2019 # Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2020

Abstract Among true falcons (Falco sp.), the lanner falcon (F. biarmicus), due to its rarity, has always been viewed as an ‘oddity’, even the name has a contorted history, with both common and scientific names being subject to debate. Unfortunately, the Latinisation of the common name for taxonomic purposes (F. lanarius) produced further confusion. Indeed, the old falconry term Lanier evolved independently from lanarius indicating the falcon species. In addition, the lanner falcon was often considered a very rare and possibly vagrant species in Europe. As a consequence of this scarcity, many controversial taxonomic issues arose due to the low number of occurrences in private collections and museums. Numerous sources originally published in the nineteenth century, as well as those published more recently in the twentieth century, should be very helpful in understanding many of the anomalies that have been inherited from the past, many of which remain with us today. From this historical analysis, it is possible to deduce some constraints that have strongly influenced and driven the current taxonomic position of this large falcon. In fact, in spite of the discontinuous process of classification, only a few peculiar morphological features persist today to justify the subspecies level. Thus, further in-depth morphological and genetical analyses are needed on lanner falcon subspecies. Keywords Lanner falcon . Falco lanarius . Old falconry . Medieval poetry . Taxonomy . Nomenclature

Introduction ‘There is no falcon about which so much confusion has existed as the celebrated Lanner of falconry. The name has been given to the Peregrine, the Ger-Falcon, the Sacer, and other birds, even by scientific writers. We are indebted to H. Schlegel for applying the right name to the right bird, and for making the Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-019-00995-1) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. * Giovanni Leonardi [email protected] Luke J. Sutton [email protected] 1

Hierofalcon Research Group, Via Stazzone, 235, 95124 Catania, Italy

2

School of Biological and Marine Sciences, University of Plymouth, Drake Circus, Plymouth PL4 8AA, UK

3

The Peregrine Fund, 5668 West Flying Hawk Lane, Boise, ID 83709, USA

distinction between this and preceding species, which will prevent any future confusion’ (Bree 1859). Charles R. Bree summarizes the great confusion arising from past errors in the identification of the lanner falcon (Falco biarmicus; hereafter LF) and concludes by thanking Hermann Schlegel for the new taxonomic revision, a re-classification that continues to persist almost unchanged until the present day. This large falcon traditionally belongs to the