402 Zoological Society. 



inspecting it,) to judge of the impropriety of assigning it a place 

 among the Raptores. The nearest approach to the Vulturidce, said 

 to be from New Zealand, and brought from thence by Captain Cook, 

 is the Polyborus Novce-Zelandice, the Falco Novce-Zelandia of Dr. La- 

 tham : now as I conceive that the specimen brought home by Cap- 

 tain Cook will prove to be identical with those so frequently trans- 

 mitted from the Straits of Magellan, as I am not aware of any other 

 specimen except Captain Cook's having been received direct from 

 New Zealand, and, moreover, that the form is strictly confined to 

 America and its adjacent islands, some mistake may have arisen in 

 labelling the specimen brought home by our celebrated navigator, 

 a circumstance which, if my opinion be correct, has involved the 

 history of the species in considerable confusion. 



" Of the genus Aqu.Ua only one species has as yet been discovered, 

 viz., the Aquila fucosa of Cuvier, which doubtless represents in Au- 

 stralia the Golden Eagle of Europe, from which it may be readily 

 distinguished by its more slender contour, and by its lengthened and 

 wedge-shaped tail. 



"Of the genus Haliaetus or Sea Eagles, there are four species, the 

 . largest of which, clearly the analogue of the European H. albicilla, 

 is one of the species which I consider to be new, and which from the 

 wedge-shaped form of its tail I would characterise as H. sphenurus. 

 I cannot but consider the form of the tail in this species as particu- 

 larly interesting, inasmuch as it is a character peculiar to all the 

 species of Eagle inhabiting Australia, although in a less degree to the 

 others than to the present species. The second is a small species, 

 described by Messrs. Vigors and Horsfield in the Linnsean Transac- 

 tions as Hal. canorus, the European representatives of which are 

 not so clear to me as those just alluded to. The third is the Ha- 

 liaetus Calei of Messrs. Vigors and Horsfield, of which a single spe- 

 cimen exists in the collection of the Linnaean Society, and which I 

 should be rather inclined to assign to the genus Astur than to that of 

 Haliaetus. In size this species equals the Common Buzzard, but has 

 the rounded wing and several other characters peculiar to the genus 

 Astur. The fourth is the White-breasted Eagle of Dr. Latham, a 

 species inhabiting the continent of Australia and Van Diemen's Land. 

 At a cursory glance this powerful bird might be said to represent the 

 Haliaetus leucocephalus of northern Europe and America ; and al- 

 though I cannot but admit their resemblance, I discern characters 

 sufficiently distinct to warrant its separation into a new genus. I 

 am not, however, prepared to make this division at the present mo- 

 ment ; still I am of opinion this bird will prove to be one of a group 



