THE GREAT SEA-EAGLE. 



HaLIAETUS ALBJCILLA. 



Next to the true Eagles, whose prey is taken on the 

 land, and whose aiery is built upon the mountains, the 

 group of which the present species is the type, com- 

 prehends the most powerful and the most destructive 

 of the Raptorial Order. In common with them it 

 forms part of a tribe distinguished from the rest of the 

 Falconidae by the absence of the tooth-like process 

 of the beak which characterizes the Hawks and the 

 Falcons ; by the much greater length of that organ, its 

 straight base, and terminal curvature, contrasted with 

 the short beaks hooked from the very base which are 

 common to most of the other tribes that constitute the 

 family ; by the comparative length of the quill-feathers, 



BIRDS. 1) 



