EAGLES AND EAQLE-LIKE BIRDS, 11 



bird whether on the perch or wing, but when 

 circling up in lofty ili^lit, renewing the impulse from 

 time to time by a few strokes of its wings, the 

 absence of effort bespeaks the presence of 

 power, as becomes this monarch of the air. 



WHITE TAILED EAGLE 3 feet; tail pare white; 

 unfeathered. 



WHITE -TAILED EAGLE. Plate 67. 3 feet 

 General colour of upper parts brown, inclining to 

 ^i;iy on the head and neck, and some of the wing- 

 feathers having lighter edges ; flight- feathers black ; 

 tail white ; under parts brown, lighter on the throat 

 and chest ; bill and feet yellow, the legs not feathered. 

 Young birds : head blackish-brown ; upper and under 

 parts highly mottled, light brown on lower back ; tail 

 brown ; bill dark ; feet yellow. Principally winter 

 migrant. 



Eggs. 2, dirty-white; 2'85 * 2'2 inches (plate 127). 



Nest. A mass of sticks, with softer material for 

 lining, placed on sea-cliffs, but sometimes on an 

 inland rock or water-surrounded island. 



Diatribution. Only in some of the islands north 

 and west of Scotland, and at rare points on the west 

 coast of Ireland. 



All but extirpated from the British Isles as a 

 breeding species, the White-Tailed Eagle generally 

 young birds migrating appears yearly in the coast 

 counties during the autumn and winter months. It 

 nests for the most part on sea-cliffs, preying largely 

 upon clill breeding species, but varying its dii by 



