336 BULLETIN OF THE 



above referred to has the general color of the under parts white, with 

 most of the feathers centred with spots of dusky brown of varying size, 

 but with a nearly uniform dusky brown patch on the middle of the breast. 

 The interscapulars are also mainly white, and the general plumage above, 

 except the wings, more or less varied with the same color. The tail below 

 is mottled with irregularly shaped specks and spots of dusky or black on a 

 white ground, and above with white on a nearly black ground, and tipped 

 with dusky. The appearance of the under side of the bird at a distance 

 vould be nearly uniform whitish. 



Mr. Cassin having stated repeatedly that his HaliaL'tus pelagicus (the 

 Anuila pelagica Pallas*) is the largest and most powerful of all known 

 >agles,f I was greatly surpised, in critically studying his description, to 

 ind it in every respect evidently far inferior in size to Audubon's bird of 

 Washington, and scarcely equalling the //. albicilla, as described by him- 

 self; the folded wing, in fact, of his H. pelagicus is one inch shorter than 

 the folded wing of his H. albicilla, four inches shorter than the wing of the 

 //. Washingtoni, as measured by Audubon, and two inches shorter than the 

 folded wing of several different Massachusetts specimens of //. leucocepha- 

 lus! The length he gives of "a skin from Behring's Strait " — the only 

 specimen, he says, at that time in America — is " about 3 feet 8 inches," 

 which exceeds by one inch only the length of Audubon's II. Washingtoni, 

 as given by Audubon, doubtless from the fresh bird. But the length given 

 y Mr. Cassin for his i/. pelagicus is evidently too great, as, taken in eon- 

 ■ection with the other measurements of the same specimen given by Cas- 

 in, if correct, it would indicate a bird of the most anomalous and im- 

 probable proportions. Mr. Casein's erroneous conception of the gigantic 

 size of his bird was doubtless formed from the length of his specimen, 

 which if a flat or unfilled skin, as it probably was, must have measured 

 several inches more than the natural length of the bird.J While I do not 

 'n the least question the sincerity of Mr. Cassin's belief in the large size 

 jf his bird, I have felt it proper to call the attention of future investiga- 



* Zoographia Rosso-Asiatica, I, p. 343. 



t " The bird which is the subject of our present article is the largest and most power- 

 ful of the eagles." — Illust. Birds Cat. and Texas, p. 32, first paragraph. "Even the 

 famous condor of the Andes, the largest of vultures, scarcely exceeds him in size," 

 etc. Ibid., p. 32, third paragraph. " The largest of all known eagles, and nearly re- 

 lated to IJ. Washingtoni (Aud.). It differs from the hitter as described by Audubon in 

 being generally larger," etc. Ibid., p. 38. "It is the largest of the eagles and ap- 

 pears to be related to the species immediately succeeding" (77. Washingtoni). Ibid., 

 p. 110. 



} Pallas says of his Aquila pehgica, which Cassin makes identical with his II. pela- 

 gicus: •' Caudse 1' 1", lohgitudo alae composite 1", 11", 2'" "; which dimensions do 

 not indicate a bird larger than avarage examples of B. leucocephalus or U. albialfa. 



