THE SEA-EAGLE. 113 



surrounded with high rocks or eminences, and not at 

 any very great distance from the sea ; characters that 

 belong to most of the larger lakes in the islands. That 

 bird is 



THE SEA-EAGLE. 



IN the history of the sea-eagle there is some con- 

 fusion ; first, because it has been confounded with the 

 osprey, or fishing buzzard ; and secondly, because the 

 old and the young have been described as two distinct 

 species. Indeed, some naturalists are of opinion that 

 the osprey is only the eagle at a different stage of its 

 growth. The two, however, are essentially different 

 in their size, their habits, and even of the divisions 

 of the hawk tribe to which they properly belong. The 

 male of the osprey is only about one foot nine inches 

 in length, and the female about two feet; and the 

 breadth of the male about five feet, and of the female 

 about five feet and a half. The male of the sea-eagle 

 is about four feet in length, and the female about two 

 feet ten inches ; and the breadth of the female is about 

 seven feet. The tarsi of the osprey are naked and 

 scaly; those of the sea-eagle are feathered at least 

 half way to the toes. The osprey has in former times 

 been trained to catch fish for its keeper, while the sea- 

 eagle, like the golden-eagle, will not fish but for itself 

 or its young. 



The OSPREY (falco haliaetus) of Linnaeus, though in 

 his time the distinctions of eagles were very imper- 

 fectly understood, and which u&ed to be called the 

 bald buzzard, or the fishing hawk, is in fact not an 

 L 3 



