AVES-EAGLE. 



447 



gum arabic, and presenting less of the downy gloss exhibited on the upper part 

 of the bald-headed eagle's plumage. The male bird weighs fourteen and a 

 nalt pounds avoirdupois, measures three feet seven inches in length, and 

 ten feet two inches in extent. 



" From the above account it will be seen that the bird here described, and 

 faithfully figured from a fresh killed specimen, is a very scarce species, even 

 in those parts where it is a native ; and that it is rarely met with, the few 

 opportunities I have had of seeing it, the dates of which I have generally 

 given, are a sufficient proof." 



WHITE-HEADED, OR BALD E A G L E .1 



This distinguished bird has been long known to naturalists, being common 

 to both continents, and occasionally met with from a very high northern 

 latitude, to the borders of the torrid zone, but chiefly in the vicinity of the 

 sea, and along the shores and cliffs of our lakes, and large rivers. Formed 

 by nature for braving the severest cold ; feeding equally upon .he produce 

 of the sea and of the land ; possessing powers of flight capable of outstripping 

 even the tempests themselves ; unawed by any thing but man ; and from 

 the ethereal heights to which he soars, looking abroad, at one glance, on an 

 immeasurable expanse of forests, fields, lakes, and ocean deep below him. 

 he appears indifferent to the little localities of change of seasons; as in a 

 ?'ew minutes he can pass from summer to winter, from the loAver to the 

 higher regions of the atmosphere, the abode of eternal cold ; and thence 



1 Fcdco leucocephaius, Lin. 



