THE WHITE-BELLIED SEA-EAGLE. 199 



It occurs down the Malay peninsula and is found in Java, Borneo, 

 Celebes and the Philippine Islands, and it extends through China to 

 Japan. Pere David states that it breeds in the mountains of Pekin. 



Genus HALIAETUS, Samgny. 



573. HALIAETUS LEUCOGASTER. 



THE WHITE-BELLIED SEA-EAGLE. 



Falco leucogaster, Gm. Syst. Nat. i. p. 257. Haliaetus leucogaster, Jerd. B. 

 2nd. i. p. 84; Sharpe, Cat. Birds B. Mas. i. p. 307 ; Legge, Birds Ceylon, p. 67 ; 

 Hume fy Dav. S. F. vi. p. 17 ; Hume, 8. F. viii. p. 82 ; Oates, 8. F. x. p. 180. 

 Cuncuma leucogaster, Hume, Rough Notes, ii. p. 259 ; id. Nests and Eggs, 

 p. 48 ; Salvad. Ucc. Born. p. 5 : Hume, S. F. ii. p. 149 ; id. S. F. iv. pp. 422, 

 461 ; Armstrong, S. F. iv. p. 298. Blagrus leucogaster, Bl. B. Burm. p. 64. 



Description. Male and female. The whole head, neck and lower 

 plumage white; tail black, broadly tipped with white; primaries and 

 secondaries blackish, the outer webs of the former washed with grey; 

 back, rump, upper tail-coverts, wing-coverts, scapulars and tertiaries ashy 

 grey. 



The young bird has those parts brown which are ashy grey in the adult, 

 and the white portions of the plumage tinged with fulvous; the white 

 band at the end of the tail is absent, the whole tail being dark brown 

 marked with paler brown. 



Irides light brown ; cere and gape leaden grey ; upper mandible dusky 

 brown, shading into a greyish blue towards its junction with the cere ; 

 lower mandible bluish grey, tipped with dusky brown; legs and feet dirty 

 yellowish white ; claws black. (Armstrong.) 



Length about 28 inches, tail 10, wing 22, tarsus 4, bill from gape 2-5. 

 The female is rather larger. 



The White-bellied Sea-Eagle is found in more or less abundance along 

 the whole coast of Burmah, and also up the larger rivers for a distance of 

 sixty miles or so. 



It is met with on the coasts of India and Ceylon, the Malay archipelago 

 and islands to Australia and the Pacific Ocean. 



This Eagle is entirely a maritime species, being apparently never, or 

 very seldom indeed, found near fresh water. Its food is chiefly sea-snakes. 

 It makes a large stick nest on high trees and lays two eggs. Mr. Hume 

 observed a vast number of these Eagles breeding on Pigeon Island off the 

 west coast of India. 



