n= 2. = 4 
THE WHITE-HEADED EAGLE. 51 
says, ‘It breeds in the mountainous portions of Maine, 
New Hampshire, Vermont, and New York.” The Golden 
Eagle usually constructs its nest on the sides of steep rocky 
crags, where its materials are coarsely heaped together on 
a projecting shelf of rock. These consist of large sticks 
loosely arranged. In rare instances, they are said to 
have been built on trees in the Western States, where 
rocky cliffs are not to be met with. The eggs are usually 
three in number; sometimes two, or only one. Mr. Audu- 
bon describes them as measuring three and a half inches in 
length by two and a half in breadth; the shell thick and 
smooth, dull-white, brushed over with undefined patches 
of brown, which are most numerous at the larger end. 
HALIATUS, Savieny. 
Size large; tarsi short, naked, or feathered for a short distance below the joint 
of the tibia and tarsus, and with the toes covered with scales; toes rather long; 
claws very strong, curved, very sharp; bill large, very strong, compressed; margin 
of upper mandible slightly lobed; wings long, pointed; tail moderate. 
HALIATUS LEUCOCEPHALUS. 
The White-headed Eagle; the Bald Eagle; the Gray Eagle. 
Falco leucocephalus, Linneus. Syst. Nat., I. 124 (1766). 
Falco pygargus, Daudin. Traite d’Orn., IL. 62 (1800). 
Falco ossifragus, Wilson. Am. Orn., VII. 16 (1818). 
DESCRIPTION. 
Bill large, strong, straight at the base, rather abruptly hooked; wings long; 
tarsi rather short. 
Adult. — Head, tail, and its upper and under coverts, white; entire other plumage 
brownish-black, generally with the edges of the feathers paler; bill, feet, and irides, 
or iris, yellow. 
Younger. — Entire plumage, including head and tail, dark-brown; paler on the 
throat; edges of the feathers paler or fulvous, especially on the under parts; tail 
more or less mottled with white, which color, in more advanced age, extends over a 
large portion of the tail, especially on the inner webs; bill brownish-black; irides 
brown. : 
Total length, female, about thirty-five to forty inches; wing, twenty-three to 
twenty-five inches; tail, fourteen to fifteen inches. Male, thirty to thirty-four inches: 
wing, twenty to twenty-two inches; tail, thirteen to fourteen inches. 
