SEA EAGLE. 61 



Eagles soon after commencea building another nest on the very 

 next adjoining tree, thus exhibiting a very particular attachment 

 to the spot. The Eagles, he says, make it a kind of home, and 

 lodging place in all seasons. This man asserts, that the Gray, 

 or Sea Eagles, are the young of the Bald Eagle, and that they 

 are several years old before they begin to breed. It does not 

 drive its young from the nest like the Osprey, or Fish-Hawk; 

 but continues to feed them long after they leave it. 



The bird from which the figure in the plate was drawn, and 

 which is reduced to one-third the size of life, measured three 

 feet in length, and upwards of seven feet in extent. The bill 

 was formed exactly like that of the Bald Eagle, but of a dusky 

 brown colour; cere and legs bright yellow; the latter, as in the 

 Bald Eagle, feathered a little below the knee; irides a bright 

 straw colour; head above, neck and back streaked with light 

 brown, deep brown and white, the plumage being white, tipt 

 and centred with brown; scapulars brown; lesser wing-coverts 

 very pale, intermixed with white; primaries black, their shafts 

 brownish white; rump pale brownish white; tail rounded, some- 

 what longer than the wings when shut, brown on the exterior 

 vanes, the inner ones white, sprinkled with dirty brown; throat, 

 breast and belly, white, dashed and streaked with different tints 

 of brown and pale yellow; vent brown, tipt with white; femo- 

 rals dark brown, tipt with lighter; auriculars brown, forming 

 a bar from below the eye backwards; plumage of the neck long, 

 narrow and pointed, as is usual with the Eagles, and of a brown- 

 ish colour tipt with white. 



The Sea Eagle is said by various authors to hunt at night as 

 well as during the day; and that besides fish it feeds on chick- 

 ens, birds, hares and other animals. It is also said to catch fish 

 during the night; and that the noise of its plunging into the 

 water is heard at a great distance. But in the descriptions of 

 these writers this bird has been so frequently confounded with 

 the Osprey, as to leave little doubt that the habits and manners 

 of the one have been often attributed to both; and others added 

 that are common to neither. 



