484 Bmns of ilmn'oia. 



The following is from Mr. Nelson's "List of the Birds of North- 

 eastern Illinois" (liidl. /v.vxr.r IiikI. VIII., 1870, p. 120). 



"Not very uncommon dnrint,' winter. .Vrrives in November and 

 departs early in spring. Formerly nested throngliout the State. 

 Pr. Hoy records the breeding of a pair of these birds in a tree 

 near Kacine in 1851. (Wis. Agr. Kep., 1852.) In December, 1K71, 

 while hunting Prairie Chickens in a held a few mdes south of Chi- 

 cago, my friend, Mr. T. Morris, was suddenly attacked with great 

 fury by a pair of these birds, they darting so close that had he 

 been prepared he could easily have touched the first one with his 

 gun. As it arose to renew the attack he tired a charge of number 

 six shot, and l)rought it down, dead. The second one then darted 

 at him, and so rapidly that he did not lire until it had turned and 

 was soaring up, but so near that the charge passed tlu-ough the 

 primaries in a body, disabling but not injuring the bird, which was 

 then captured alive. The cause of this attack was explained by 

 the proximity of a carcass upon which these birds had been feed- 

 ing. The craw of the dead eagle contamed a large quantity of 

 carrion, as I learned u])on skinning it." 



Genus HALI^ETUS Savionv. 



Baluri-liis SAVir.^Y. Dose, do 1' Egypto. Iboa. 2il. Tyr"'. Faico alliirilla Likn. 



Gen. Chah. Form robiitit.iiuil organization pnwortul, as in -Ii/hiVo; sizo large. Bill 

 vory largo, u.'iiiully .somewhat inllatod. tlio ohord of tho aroli of the oulmen more than 

 twioe tho length of the oere on top: eommissuro with a more or loss distinot festoon and 

 sinuation behind it. Nostril oval, obliiiiiely vertical. Feet robust and strong, the tarsus 

 less than one and a half times the middle too; tarsus feathered in front nod on the sides 

 for about one half its length; front of the tarsus and top of the toes with an imper- 

 feotly eontinuous series of transverse seutelho, entirely iiitorru|itod in the region of tho 

 digito-tarsal Joint; the other portions eoverod with roundish, somewhat granular, soales, 

 those larger on the posterior faeo. Claws large, strongly ourvod. and nioro obtuse, and 

 loss graduati'd in sizi', than in Aguila. No distinet web between outer and middle loos. 

 Wing viry large, the primaries well developed and strong; third to Mfth i|uiU longest; 

 llr.st longer than the ninth; outer live to six with inner webs deeply emarginatcd. Tail 

 short and rounded, with twelve feathers. Feathers of tho nook, all round, laneeobito. 



North America possesses but two species of this very strongly 

 characterized genus, and one of these claims a place in our fauna 

 solely on account of its occurrence in Gi'ecnland. The other is the 

 common Bald Eagle, the distribution of which includes the entire 

 continent with the exception of the tropical portions. 



