334 BULLETIN OF THE 



Haliaetus leucocephalus Savigny. — Bonaparte, Geog. and Comp. List, 3, 

 1838. — Audubon, Synop., 10, 1839. — Cassin, Illust. Birds Cal., Texas, 

 etc., Ill, 1854. — Cassin, Baird's Birds N. Am., 43, 1858 



Faico ossifiagus Wilson, Am. Orn., VII, 16, pi. lv, 1813. 



Aquila (Haliaetus) leucocephalus Kich. & Swain., Faun. Bor. Am., II, 15, 1832. 



Faico Washingtom Audubon, Orn. Biog., I, 58, pi. xi, 1831 (plate published 

 1827). 



Faico Washingtomana Audubon, Loudon's Mag. N. Hist., I, 115, 1828. 



Haliaetus ]\ \ishingtoni Audubon, Synop., 10. 1839. — Cassin, Baird's Birds 

 N. Am., 42, 1859. 



Common. Breeds in January and later. Very abundant on the 

 Upper St. John's, and especially at Lake Monroe. Saw them repeat- 

 edly dive and catch their own fish, though usually depending upon rob- 

 bing the fish-hawks for them. The same fact has been reported by 

 other observers,* although it was formerly supposed they never caught 

 any fish themselves. 



The large specimen of an eagle taken by Audubon in Kentucky, and 

 figured and described by him as Faico Washingtoni, seems not to have 

 been preserved ; it is at least not known to be extant, and appears to have 

 never been examined by any other naturalist. Audubon states that he 

 altogether saw not " more than eight or nine " specimens, f and deemed it 

 very rare. He does not appear, however, to have really examined but the 

 one figured. Numerous local observers have reported it as occasional at 

 different localities, and Mr. Cassin has doubtfully referred specimens to it 

 taken in New Jersey. Nuttall believed the young were more or less 

 common near Boston every winter, and considered it as " probably also 

 indigenous to northern Europe, but confounded with the ordinary sea 

 eagle." J But, as remarked by Mr. Cassin, " No specimen precisely 

 corresponding to Mr. Audubon's bird has been obtained since its dis- 

 covery, and it has latterly been looked upon by naturalists, especially 

 in Europe, as an unusually large specimen of the white-headed eagle." § 

 The important point of difference between Audubon's bird and other rep- 

 resentatives of this genus consists in the scutellation of the tarsi, which 

 are covered in front with broad transverse scales, instead of with a great 

 number of small irregular ones, as in other sea eagles. This, Mr. Cassin 



* William Couper, Massachusetts Ploughman, August 26, 1S70. Charles H. Nau- 

 man, on his own authority and that of Professor S. S. Hakleman, Ibid., September 24, 

 1870. Henry Reeks, Can. Nat., Vol. V, No. 1, p. 43, 1870. 



t Loudon's Mag. of Nat. Hist., Vol. I, p. 116, April, 1828. 



I Mem. Am. Acad., 1st Ser., Vol. I, p. 92, 1831. 



§ Illustrations of Birds of California, Texas, etc., p. Ill, 1854. 



