34 ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS. 



the fourth being ahiiost uniformly the most elongated 

 of the series, and the first being extremely short ; and 

 by the equal developement of those which compose 

 the tail. Thus the actual existence of the Eagles as 

 a division among the Falcons of Linnseus, which has 

 been by some regarded as a mere conventional assump- 

 tion grafted on the popular nomenclature, is established 

 upon sound zoological principles. 



The Sea-Eagles of M. Savigny form a less noble as 

 well as a less typical group than the true Eagles, from 

 which they recede considerably both in organization 

 and habits. The ridge of their beak, instead of being 

 somewhat angular, is convex and compressed ; and 

 their legs, instead of being plumed down to the very 

 toes, are naked in their lower parts, the upper half 

 of the tarsi alone being covered with short close-set 

 feathers. The cere in which the nostrils are perforated 

 is slightly hispid ; the wings are long and powerful ; 

 the anterior surface of the tarsi is scutellated ; the toes 

 are free throughout their whole extent ; the outer one is 

 capable of taking a retroverted direction ; and the claws 

 are of unequal size, strongly curved, and furnished with 

 a deep internal groove. They have all a greater or less 

 tendency to change in a remarkable degree the colour 

 of their plumage on the head and neck as they advance 

 in age, evincing in this, as in several other respects, an 

 approximation to certain South American groups, in 

 which those parts are feathered in the young state and 

 partially denuded in maturity, and through them to the 

 Vultures, in which the head and neck are in all stages 

 of their growth covered only with a silky down. 



In the choice of their food the Sea-Eagles are far 

 less scrupulous than their brethren of the land. Inlia- 

 bitinp- most commonly the sea-coasts, or the banks of 

 the larger rivers and inlets, they make their prey 



