2 BIRDS OF GUERNSEY. 



doubt, a late winter visitant, as it is hardly possible 

 that the bird can have escaped for so long a time, 

 as it would have done had it visited the Islands at 

 its usual time, October or November. All the 

 Channel Island specimens of the White-tailed 

 Eagle which I have seen have been young birds of 

 the first or second year, in the immature plumage 

 in which the bird is known as the Sea Eagle of 

 Bewick, and in which it is occasionally mistaken 

 for the Golden Eagle, which bird has never, I 

 believe, occurred in the Islands. Of course in the 

 adult plumage, when this bird has its white tail 

 and head, no such mistake could occur, but in the 

 immature plumage in which the bird usually makes 

 its appearance such a mistake does occasionally 

 happen, and afterwards it becomes difficult to con- 

 vince the owner that he has not a Golden Eagle ; 

 in fact he usually feels rather insulted when told of 

 his mistake, and ignores all suggestions of anything 

 like an infallible test, so it may be as well to 

 mention that the birds may be distinguished in any 

 state of plumage and at any age by the tarsus, 

 which in the White -tailed Eagle is bare of feathers 

 and in the Golden Eagle is feathered to the junction 

 of the toes. I have one in my possession shot at 

 Bordeaux harbour on the 14th of November, 1871, 

 and I saw one in the flesh at Mr. Couch's, the bird- 

 stuffer, which had been shot at Alderney on the 

 2nd of November in the same year ; and Mr. 



