ON ORNITHOLOGY. 445 
Eagle makes during its life is interesting, and I believe that 
this bird attains an extraordinary age, very much greater than 
is usually imagined. For several years it flies about in a 
dark dress, almost as brown as that of the “ Stein” Hagle, 
and with a bluish beak and somewhat darker feet. It is then 
that Sea-Hagles are mistaken for “ Stein” Hagles, and are 
even sent to museums as such, The first change of plumage 
takes place very slowly, the back remaining dark longest. 
The earliest part to colour is the breast, and in most cases the 
bird only becomes adult when it has fully assumed the light 
dress, i. e. after several years. 
I have seen some of these eagles, and I even killed one 
myself, in a most remarkable transition state of plumage. It 
was really quite spotted and was accompanied by a perfectly 
dark-coloured, and therefore much younger, bird. I shot it 
at a dead horse, in the middle of the breeding-season, but it 
had no nest and was in its prentice years. I saw another 
with somewhat similar plumage, which already had a nest ; 
it was clad in the pale dress, with the exception of some 
isolated dark feathers, and its beak was still blue-grey. The 
older the bird, the lighter is the beak and the whole plumage. 
Among the Sea-Hagles that range about in winter indi- 
viduals are often seen which, at a distance, appear quite white. 
The tail, at first dark, always becomes paler in course of time, 
and begins by being banded like that of the so-called Golden 
Eagle, but one feather after another blanches, until at last in 
old age the whole becomes brilliantly white. 
In our country the only breeding-grounds yearly visited 
by the Sea-Eagle are situated in the southern parts of 
Hungary (at least I know of no other frequented nesting- 
places), and every year the advance of civilization is driving 
them further back. Thirty or forty years ago, as we learn 
from the writings of several of the earlier ornithologists, Sea- 
Hagles still nested in considerable numbers on the island of 
