WHITE.TAILED SEA-EAGLE. 83 



Dr Neill observes tluit he speaks of the bird as a he, 

 without being positive as to the sex ; and it would in- 

 deed appear probable, from various circumstances, i)ar- 

 ticularly the rather small size of the bird, that this opi- 

 nion is correct. 



A beautiful live specimen, which had been caught, 

 at Lochmaben, in a trap set for vermin, and was seen 

 by me in Edinburgh, on the 30th April 1834; another 

 old individual formerly belonging to Messrs Eagle and 

 Henderson, and still in perfect health ; and an old fe- 

 male, from Galloway, preserved in the Museum of the 

 University of Edinburgh, are or were all in the same 

 adult plumage as that of Dr Neill ; and besides these I 

 have examined three individuals in the Hebrides, and 

 many others in museums ; so that my description can- 

 not fail to be tolerably correct. 



But if " with all appliances and means," one can 

 neither satisfy himself nor his readers that he has pre- 

 sented a faithful picture ; what shall we say of those 

 who having neither observed for themselves, nor pos- 

 sessing the power of distinguishing between the truths 

 and errors of others, profess to instruct the public. Yet 

 many such there are in these days of book-making. 

 With the qualifications of the author of a professedly 

 popular work on British Birds, I am not acquainted, 

 and I should be sorry to say or do any thing to his 

 disadvantage ; but I feel myself compelled to use my 

 pen against the statements contained in pages 112 

 and 113 of the first volume of the " Feathered Tribes 

 of the British Islands," scarcely one of which is cor- 

 rect. Eagles, says he, " are in all respects the birds 

 pf the greatest elevation. They frequent more lonely 



