484 BULLETIN 50, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



to dusky sepia on the underparts of the body, the upperparts generally 

 blacker, the underparts more rufescent, brownish; scapulars; inter- 

 scapulars, under wing coverts and feathers of the breast and abdomen 

 narrowly edged with fulvous white to pale hair brown, the edgings 

 most pronounced, palest, and broadest on the upper wing coverts; 

 the six outermost primaries emarginated on their inner webs, fourth 

 (from the outside) the longest, then the third, fifth, and second; 

 tail slightly graduated, the difference in length between the lateral 

 and median rectrices about the same as the depth of bill at the base; 

 iris pale chrome yellow; orbits, cere, bill and feet deep dull cadmium; 

 claws black. 



Subadult (sexes alil^e). — Similar to the adult, but the head streaked, 

 or at least the feathers tipped, with fuscous to fuscous-black; tail 

 feathers also mottled or blotched with dark fuscous; abdomen and to 

 a lesser extent the breast and interscapulars blotched with creamy 

 to white, this light color predominating basally on these feathers and 

 often showing through. The amount of white on the underparts is 

 very variable. In some individuals there is almost more whitish 

 than dark brownish color.*® 



Immature (sexes alike). — Similar to the subadult, but the white 

 in the rectrices restricted to a mottled area on the inner webs of the 

 lateral feathers and to a median streak on the central pair; head with 

 no white, but merely the brown feathers tipped with tawny-fulvous; 

 the feathers of the body both above and below basally whitish, this 

 color often showing through in variable amounts, especially on the 

 underparts; the cheeks, auriculars, and sides of the neck generally 

 without pale fulvous or tawny tips forming a broad dark brownish 

 band in contrast to the lighter dorsal area. 



Juvenal (sexes alike) .^ — -Entire head, body, and wings very dark 

 fuscous to fuscous-black, the feathers basally paler fulvous to whitish, 

 but little of the basal color sho\ving through ; tail lilve the rest of the 

 body, but mottled with dirty fulvous-white along the inner webs of the 

 lateral rectrices and to a limited extent along both webs of the median 

 pair, this light mottling more pronounced on the under sides of the 

 feathers than on the upper sides; under tail coverts dirty fulvous- 

 white to whitish broadly tipped with dark fuscous or fuscous-black; 

 feathers of the abdomen often with a sepia tinge; under wing coverts 

 whitish with dark fuscous broad shaft streaks and washed with dusky 

 fulvous terminally; iris pale yellowish gray; cere grayish, tinged with 

 yellow; bill brownish horn color; feet clear lemon yellow. 



*' An extreme variant of this sort is the very whitish bird collected by Stejneger 

 on Bering Island and subsequently described by Ridgway as a new species, 

 Haliaeetus hypoleiicus. This has currently been treated as a synonym of the 

 gray sea eagle, Haliaeetus albicilla, but the size and general proportions of the 

 specimen point more to its being an aberrant bald eagle. 



