68 THE FEATHEKED TRIBES. 



The Great Sea Eagle is an inhabitant of nearly the whole of Europe and of northern 

 Asia. It sometimes builds its nests in the clefts of rocks, but more frequently on the 

 summit of some lofty tree. The female lays two eggs, about the same size and shape as 

 those of a goose. The young are fed with fish or flesh until they are able to quit the 

 nest, when they sally forth with their parents in (juest of their own prey, and speedily 

 assume an independent mode of hfc. 



THE WHITE-HEADED SEA EAGLE.* 



There is httle to distinguish this bird, in the earlier stages of its growth, from the great 

 sea eagle. It afterwards acquires a character, which at once renders confusion impos- 

 sible. Tliis consists in the pure whiteness of its head and neck, from whence it has 

 derived the popular, but inappropi-iate title, of the bald eagle, by which it is most com- 

 monly known. 



The young are covered at first with a thick whitish or cream-coloured cottony down ; 

 they gradually become of a gray colour as their plumage is developed, and continue of a 

 brown gray imtU the third year, when the white begins to make its appearance upon the 

 head, neck, tail-coverts, and tail. These are completely white, or at the most very 

 slightly tinged ivith cream-colour, by the end of the fourth year. The eye is at first 

 hazel, but gradually brightens into a brilhant straw-coloui- as the plumage of the head 

 becomes white. 



About the third year the upper parts of the head and body exhibit a nuxture of brown 

 and dirty white, the separate feathers having a ground of the latter colour, and being 

 deeply tipped and broadly barred along the centre, with the former. The quill-fcathers 

 and primary wing-coverts are black, with their shafts of a pale brown ; the secondary are 

 consideralily lighter ; and the tail, which projects m a trifling degree beyond the extremi- 

 ties of the wings, is brown on the outer epulis, and of a mixed white and brown on the 

 inner. The under surface, as far backward as the middle of the belly, is of a much 

 lighter shade than the upper, being of a dull white with numerous broad streaks of ])ale 

 bro^vn. In the posterior part it is of a deep brown, the feathers being only slightly 

 margined with white. A similar hue prevails on the upper parts of the legs, which are 

 plumed somewhat below the knees. The beak is of a dusky brown ; the cere and legs 

 of a golden yellow ; the ii"is somewhat lighter ; and the talons deep blackish brown. 

 The latter are long, sharply curved, of considerable power, and extremely sharp at the 

 points. The bird, when fully grown, measures upwards of three feet from beak to tail, 

 and more than seven in the expanse of its wings. Its beak is changed to a bright yellow, 

 and, according as the l)ird is more or less advanced in age, its head, a greater or less 

 proportion of the neck, and the entire tail, become perfectly white. 



The White-headed Eagle is usually described as inhabiting the nortliem parts both of 

 the old and the new continent ; but it appears to be only a rare and occasional visitant 

 of the fonncr. It is probable that some of the varieties of the common sea eagle liave 

 been frecpiently mistaken for it. Throughout nearly the whole of North America, on the 



* Ilaliaiitus Leucocciilialus. 



