320 WHITE-TAILED EAGLE. 



The White-tailed Eagle is now only a visitor to the Faeroes ; but it 

 is a resident in Iceland, and also in the south of Greenland, though 

 a migrant from the northern districts in winter. In North America 

 it is represented by the Bald Eagle, H. leucocepliahis, a species with 

 a pure white head and neck, which has erroneously been supposed 

 to occur in Iceland and Scandinavia, and even in Ireland. On the 

 Continent it inhabits the neighbourhood of salt or fresh water, in 

 Scandinavia, Denmark, Northern Germany, Russia, the valley of 

 the Danube, and Turkey ; while on migration it visits the rest of 

 Europe, the Canaries, and Northern Africa. It breeds in the 

 reed-beds of Lake Menzaleh in Lower Egypt ; and eastward we 

 trace it across Asia— to Kamschatka and Manchuria in summer, and 

 to Japan, China and India in winter. Though it wanders to the 

 Commander Islands, the only species known in the long Aleutian 

 chain is the American Bald Eagle. 



The nest, similar to that of the Golden Eagle, is, in Scotland, 

 often placed on a sea-cliff, but sometimes on an inland rock ; 

 frequently in a tree or wide-spreading bush on some small island 

 in a loch, and occasionally on the ground. One found by the Hon. 

 Murray Finch-Hatton (now Lord Winchilsea) in the marshes of 

 Lower Egypt, resembled a gigantic nest of the Marsh-Harrier, 

 being raised to a considerable height above the deep mud by 

 which it was surrounded. The eggs, usually 2 in number, dull 

 white in colour, and measuring about 2 '85 by 2*2 in., are laid in 

 Scotland in April ; but as early as February or March in the south- 

 east of Europe, and January in Egypt. Few kinds of fish, flesh, fowl, 

 or carrion come amiss to this species. The cry is a loud yelp. 



The head and neck are ash-white in very old birds ; upper parts 

 brown ; primaries nearly black ; tail wedge-shaped, and white in 

 colour ; under parts dark brown ; beak, cere, irides, legs and feet 

 yellow. Length : male 28 in. ; female 34 in. The young bird is 

 dark brown, mottled with fulvous on the mantle and wings ; tail dark 

 brown ; beak black ; cere and irides pale brown. The full plumage 

 is not attained till the fifth or sixth year. Varieties of a uniform 

 bluish-grey, yellowish-grey, and silvery-white are on record. 



In the White-tailed Eagle the lower part of the tarsus is bare of 

 feathers, while the whole length of each toe is covered with broad 

 scales. In the foot of the Golden Eagle the tarsus is clothed with 

 feathers, and each toe is covered with small reticulations as far as 

 the last joint, beyond which there are three broad scales. 



