222 HALIAETUS ALBICILLA. 



Male. — The White-tailed Sea-Eagle, the only species of 

 its genus that occurs in Britain, and the largest of our rapa- 

 cious hirds, not excepting the Golden Eagle, although inferior 

 in grace and activity to the smaller species of this family, 

 exhibits, when excited, an appearance of power and ferocity 

 calculated to inspire that kind of respect which we pay to men 

 endowed with similar qualities. In its ordinary attitude, with 

 its body inclined, its large wings hanging by its side, with the 

 secondary quills and coverts projecting over the primaries, its 

 feathers ruffled, and its neck retracted, it presents in some mea- 

 sure the aspect of a vulture, which Linnaeus erroneously con- 

 ceived it to be. Its body is large, firm, and muscular ; the 

 neck of moderate length ; the head broadly ovate, the bill 

 larger and higher than in any species known, excepting Hali- 

 aetus Washingtoni ; the legs exceedingly strong, and widely 

 separated, the toes robust, and the claws very formidable. 



The tongue of an individual supplied by Mr Carfrae, is an 

 inch and seven-twelfths long, its average breadth eight-twelfths, 

 its base deeply emarginate and beset with fine pointed papilla?, 

 of which two of the lateral are large, its sides nearly parallel, 

 its upper surface concave, its tip rounded. The oesophagus is 

 twelve inches long, at the middle and lower part of the neck 

 dilated into an enormous crop, three inches in width, then con- 

 tracted to an inch and a quarter, and again gradually enlarged 

 to two inches and a quarter. The stomach is round, a little 

 compressed, two inches and a quarter in diameter ; its walls 

 extremely thin, the muscular layer being composed of a single 

 series of parallel fasciculi ; the epithelium thin, soft, and 

 smooth •, the tendinous spaces round, very thin, and eight- 

 twelfths in diameter. The intestine is very long and slender, 

 its entire length being twelve feet three inches, its width at 

 the commencement four-twelfths, the widest part five-twelfths, 

 and the narrowest only two-twelfths. The duodenum, instead 

 of forming a simple loop, as usual, is greatly elongated, so as 

 to measure twenty inches, and is bent upon itself from left to 

 right, presenting the appearance of a coil of rope. The coecal 

 appendages are slight knobs, three-twelfths in length. The 

 rectum, which is five inches long, has a width of ten-twelfths, 



