refraining, in the interest of the birds, which are for various
reasons much persecuted, from mentioning the precise localities
occupied. In Ireland, as appears from Thompson s
work, there were a good many spots on which the Sea-Eagle
there maintained its position; hut it is much to be feared,
from the unrelenting destruction of the species which has
been carried on for some years past, that a very different
story would now have to be told by any person as well-
informed upon the subject as was that writer.
The White-tailed Eagle is not found in any part of
America, its place there being taken by the well-known
White-headed Eagle {Haliceetus leucocephalus) ,* but it is
very common in Greenland, remaining throughout the year,
according to Professor Reinhardt, in the Southern districts,
though migrating from the Northern parts in winter. I t also
inhabits Iceland, where it is resident, but, owing to the price
set upon its head, is not so common as formerly. In the
Eaero Isles, according to Herr H. C. Miiller, it still occurs, but
no longer breeds. I t is spread over the continent of Europe,
very generally in the neighbourhood of water, from the
extreme north of Norway to Spain, Sicily and Greece, but
becomes rarer towards the South, though it breeds in
Albania, as recorded by Lord Lilford. In Algeria it only
occurs accidentally, but it resides in Lower Egypt, according
to Dr. von Heuglin, who describes a nest he saw in the
thick reed-beds of Lake Menzaleh. Northward and eastward
of the European localities mentioned, the White-tailed
Eagle is abundant in some suitable places and ranges across
the Russian dominions to Kamtchatka, where, however,
Kittlitz states that it is not common. I t occurs in the Aleutian
Islands and in Japan, as well as on the adjacent coast
of Manchuria, whence young hirds, taken from a nest in
Hornet Bay, were sent to Mr. Gurney. In China, Mr. Swin-
hoe believes that it visits Amoy, and in India two or three
immature examples have been lately recognized by Mr.
Je rd o n ; but its southern limits in the rest of Asia do not
* This has been thought to occur in Europe, and even in Ireland (Zoologist,
1867, p. 562), but on no good evidence.
seem to have been defined. In the extreme north-east of that
continent, and in the Aleutian Islands, Haliceetus albicilla is
partly replaced by H. pelagicus, the largest Eagle known,
which is distinguishable at a glance by its white thighs and
upper wing-eoverts. This species, rare in collections, is said
to occur also in Japan, and on the American side of Behring’s
Strait.
The eggs of the Sea-Eagle are, when fresh-laid, of a pure
white, and measure from 3'14 to 2-7 by 2‘4 to 2’19 in. The
young are at first covered with white down. Instances are
on record of occupied nests being placed very close together,
even in the British Islands, and in (Eland Messrs. Wolley
and Hudleston found five within a circuit of two miles.
The whole length of an adult male is about twenty-eight
inches; the females are five or six inches longer : the beak
and cere are yellow, the irides straw-yellow ; the head and
neck brownish-ash (in very old birds extremely light), the
shaft of each feather the darkest p a r t; body and wings dark
brown, intermixed with a few feathers of a lighter colour;
primaries nearly black; tail entirely white, and slightly
rounded in form, the middle feathers being the longest; the
legs and toes yellow ; the claws black.
In young birds the beak is black, the cere yellowish-brown,
the irides brown; the plumage more uniform in colour, anil
darker; the tail-feathers dark brown. In this state it has
been called by many authors Falco ossifragus (bone-breaker);
but the term “ Ossifrage”, as used in the Old Testament,
refers, according to Canon Tristram, to the Bearded Vulture
or Lämmergeier (Gypaetus barbatus).
The representation of the White-tailed Eagle here given
was taken from a specimen in the Gardens of the Zoological
Society, which formerly possessed a very remarkable variety
of this species taken in Ireland, and now in the Norwich
Museum. This has the wdiole of its plumage of an uniform
bluish-grey colour, and has been figured in Meyer’s ‘British
Birds.’ Mr. St. John also mentions an example of “ a fine
silvery white,” and Mr. Robert Gray a pure white variety in
the Museum at Dunrobin.