of the District of Montreal, 57 



nally white, then umber brown, and tipped with whitish brown. 

 Whole dorsal aspect except the wings pure brown ; tail black with 

 minute whitish brown mottlings on the outer vanes of the feath- 

 ers and blotched with pure white on all the inner vanes except the two 

 centre feathers. Ventral aspect. Feathers of the chin and throat 

 like the head, the white however more apparent; breast, 

 belly and vent, brown ; inner wing coverts white tipped with 

 brown ; primaries white, 2nd mottled with whitish brown on both 

 vanes; tertiaries white, mottled with brown and brown tips; 

 tail round, blotched with white about the centre of each inner 

 vane ; femorals blackish brown, 'with whitish brown tips to the 

 end of the shafts ; tarsi yellow, very strong, feathered on the upper 

 half; toes stout, thickly cushioned ; claws long, much curved, 

 deeply grooved and compressed along their inferior margin ; 

 claws of the inner and hind toes equal in length ; bill 2| inches 

 long from the eye ; the curve commencing at the extremity of the 

 cere which projects half the distance ; nostrils oval diagonal and 

 naked ; upper mandible lobed near the end, beyond which the 

 inner surface drops perpendicularly to form the apex; there 

 is another rudimentary lobe a little posterior to the front one ; 

 lower mandible not notched, but rather compressed at its sides ; 

 the wings extend to about 2^ inches of the extremity of the tail. 

 Length 38 inches ; alar expanse 72 inches. 



Another specimen, a younger bird probably, or perhaps of a 

 different sex, presented throughout the same essential characters, 

 but differed slightly in the colour, which was lighter and more 

 rusty. It measured 40 inches with an alar expanse of Y6 

 inches. 



The young of this species has often been confounded with that 

 of the F. chrysaetos. The distinguishing characteristic is, that in 

 the latter the tarsi are completely feathered, while in the former 

 they are only feathered on their upper half, the lower half being 

 naked and scaly. The young of the F. albicilla, an European 

 species, resembles our present bird more than any other. Tem- 

 minck has suggested that the tail of the European species is larger 

 than that of ours; Richardson suggests another characteristic, 

 that the upper mandible of the former has two lobes, while that 

 of the i^. leucocephalus has but one. From what I have seen 

 there seems to be a mistake here, for the two specimens alluded 

 to, which have furnished me my description, have very evidently 

 two— a large very obtuse one near the curve, and a 2nd one 



