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 " Eagle, 

 and with a bluish beak and somewhat darker feet. It is then 

 that Sea-Eagles are mistaken for " Stein " Eagles, 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 kiUed 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-Eagles 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- 

 Eagles still nested in considerable numbers on the island of 



