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. 



HALI^TUS, SAVIGNY. 



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. 



HALI^TUS LEUCOCEPHALUS. 

 The White-headed Eagle ; the Bald Eagle ; the Gray Eagle. 



Falco hucocephalus, Linnaeus. Syst. Nat., I. 124 (1766). 

 Falco pygargus, Daudin. Traite d'Orn., II. 62 (1800). 

 Falco ossifragw, Wilson. Am. Orn., VII. 16 (1813). 



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. 



