WHITE-TAILED EAGLE. ^9 



seem to have been defined. In the extreme north-east of that 

 continent, and in the Aleutian Islands, Tlalucetus alhic'dla is 

 partly replaced by H. pelagicus, the largest Eagle known, 

 which is distinguishable at a glance by its white thighs and 

 upper wing-coverts. This species, rare in collections, is said 

 to occur also in Japan, and on the American side of Behring's 

 Strait. 



The eggs of the Sea-Eagle are, when fresh-laid, of a pure 

 white, and measure from 3*14 to 2*7 by 2'4 to 2*19 in. The 

 young are at first covered with white down. Instances are 

 on record of occupied nests being placed very close together, 

 even in the British Islands, and in CEland Messrs. Wolley 

 and Hudleston found five within a circuit of two miles. 



The whole length of an adult male is about twenty-eight 

 inches ; the females are five or six inches longer : the beak 

 and cere are yellow, the irides straw-yellow ; the head and 

 neck brownish-ash (in very old birds extremely light), the 

 shaft of each feather the darkest part ; body and wings dark 

 brown, intermixed with a few feathers of a lighter colour ; 

 primaries nearly black ; tail entirely white, and slightly 

 rounded in form, the middle feathers being the longest ; the 

 legs and toes yellow ; the claws black. 



In young birds the beak is black, the cere yellowish-brown , 

 the irides brown ; the plumage more uniform in colour, and 

 darker ; the tail-feathers dark brown. In this state it has 

 been called by many authors Falco ossifragus (bone-breaker) ; 

 but the term "Ossifrage", as used in the Old Testament, 

 refers, according to Canon Tristram, to the Bearded Vulture 

 or Ljimmergeier (GyjKietus barhatus). 



The representation of the White-tailed Eagle here given 

 Avas taken from a specimen in the Gardens of the Zoological 

 Society, which formerly possessed a very remarkable variety 

 of this species taken in Ireland, and now in the Norwich 

 Museum. This has the whole of its plumage of an uniform 

 bluish-grey colour, and has been figured in Meyer's 'British 

 Birds.' Mr. St. John also mentions an example of " a fine 

 silvery white," and Mr. Robert Gray a pure white variety in 

 the Museum at Dunrobin. 



