80 HALIAETUS ALBICILLA. 



Dr Neill, to whom many of the cultivators of every 

 branch of Natural History are indebted for valuable 

 additions to their store of information, for the follow- 

 ing history of a beautiful bird of this species, which is 

 at present, May 1835, in perfect plumage. 



" The eagle was presented to me by my friend Mr 

 James Slight, in the autumn of 1827, when in imma- 

 ture plumage, or indeed scarcely fully fledged. He 

 informed me that he had procured it at Cape Wrath, 

 in Sutherlandshire, and that it had been taken from the 

 eyry on the cliffs of that Cape in the summer of that 

 year. Next season, 1828, it became generally of a 

 dark brown colour, with a very few whitish spots about 

 the tail. At the moult of 1829, the white colour of 

 the tail-feathers became much more conspicuous, and 

 the bird seemed altogether of a lighter brown. Mr 

 Audubon saw the young bird at Canonmills in 1827, 

 and again in 1834, when in adult plumage. 



" Having succeeded in keeping the bird in perfect 

 health, though in confinement, for so long a period, I 

 may mention the plan adopted. I had an octagonal 

 wooden house, or large cage, built in the garden ; its 

 inside diameter being 9 feet, its walls 6J feet, with a 

 sloping roof, rising nearly 5 feet higher in the centre. 

 Three of the sides, opposite to a walk, and fronting 

 the south-west, were composed of open spars or trellis- 

 work, so as to admit plenty of light and air. In the 

 middle of the floor we fixed a branched trunk of a small 

 tree, so as to alford convenient perches for the bird. 

 The food usually given has been fish of any kind, and 

 bullock's liver, on alternate days. He is very fond of 

 a piece of soft mild cheese, such as that called Dunlop 



