BALD EAGLE— WHITE-HEADED EAGLE. 85 



will sometimes so gorge himself on as to be incapable of flight ; 

 and instances are on record in which he has given chase to a 

 vulture or turkey buzzard, and compelled it to disgorge its stom- 

 achful of filth to satisfy his own gross appetite. Truly a noble 

 bird to choose as the emblem of a great nation ! Franklin, while 

 regretting that this bird had been so chosen, consoled himself 

 with the reflection that few knew its portrait from that of the 

 Turkey — he must have meant the Turkey vulture ; and certainly 

 its heavy build and many of its habits place it rather with these 

 unsightly birds than with the Eagles. 



The adult Bald Eagle, such as figured in the appended plate, 

 is not the form most commonly met with, but rather the " Gray 

 Eagles" and so-called " Birds of Washington," which are its j-oung 

 stages. These, as in the case of the young of the Fish Hawk, 

 are considerably larger than the adult bird ; but after the first 

 moult the wing and tail feathers never again acquire their former 

 dimensions. This fact — true also as regards a number of the 

 Falconidae — has led to much controversy respecting the specific 

 identity of individuals, e.g., Audubon's " Bird of Washington," only 

 recently determined to be the young of the Bald Eagle. Audu- 

 bon's figure, however, differs considerably from any specimen since 

 taken, and as the bird from which his drawing was made does not 

 seem to have been preserved, nothing more can be gathered 

 respecting it. Many of the habits, given by Audubon as dis- 

 tinCTuishinof his " Bird of Washingrton " from the Bald Easrle are 

 now known to belong as well to this last bird ; for instance the 

 habit of clinmng^ to and nestino- in cliffs. 



The Bald Eagle does not assume his adult plumage until 

 after his third moult, that is in the fourth year ; but the birds of 

 the second year breed. Thus to the surprise of ornithologists the 

 " Brown" turned into " Bald" Eagles in the fourth year, and these 

 and the Golden Eagles were at last found to be the only repre- 

 sentatives of the Aquilimc in Canada and the United States. 



Dr. J. Bernard Gilpin of Halifax, N.S., has made the Eagles 

 of that Province a special study, and has examined a great number 

 of specimens. , He says, in determining our young specimens, and 



