452 Mr. J. H. Gurney's Notes on 



p. 29 of his ' Catalogue of the Birds in the Museum of the 

 Asiatic Society/ 



Under the head of Haliaetinse I include the genera Thalas- 

 saetus, Haliaetus, and Polioaetus, as well as the more abnor- 

 mal one of Gypohierax. 



The largest Eagle of this group, and also the most powerful, 

 especially as regards the great size of the bill, is the sole 

 species comprised in the genus Thalassaetus , T. pelagicus, 

 of North-eastern Asia and Japan. 



The genus Thalassaetus is not separated by Mr. Sliarpe 

 from Haliaetus ; but I think it ought to be so, as having four- 

 teen rectrices, instead of twelve, the number in Haliaetus *. 



T. pelagicus is also remarkable for the shape of the tail 

 being more decidedly cuneiform than is the case in any other 

 Sea-Eagle except Haliaetus leucogaster. 



So few examples of T. pelagicus exist in this country, that 

 I think it worth mentioning that the Norwich Museum is 

 fortunate in possessing it in three stages, one specimen being 

 a fully fledged nestling, taken from a nest at Tasmunskoi, on 

 the shores of the Sea of Okhotsk, on the 23rd July, 1853, a 

 second being an immature bird beginning to assume the adult 

 dress, and the third being an old bird, in which the remark- 

 able adult garb has been fully developed. 



Very little inferior in size to T. pelagicus, and spread over 

 a vastly more extensive geographical area, is the typical species 

 of the genus Haliaetus, H. albicilla. 



Mr. Sharpens summary of the countries where this Eagle 

 exists is necessarily concise ; but a more detailed account will 

 be found in Mr. Dresser^s article on this species in the * Birds 

 of Europe,^ including some particulars of its occurrence in 

 Northern Africa and in the Canary Islands, both of which 

 are localities unnoticed by Mr. Sharpe. 



Mr. Sharpe and Mr. Dresser both mention the occurrence 

 of H. albicilla in the Aleutian Islands; but in Mr. W. H. 

 Dale's account of the avifauna of those islands, published in 



* Conf. Baird, Brewer, and Ridgway's ' North- American Birds,' vol. iii. 

 pp. 321, 322, witli figure of tail of Thalassaetus. I have not had an oppor- 

 tunity of examining the tail of Haliaetus vociferoides. 



