THE WHITE-HEADED SEA-EAGLE. 39 



should be led to conclude that the period in which it 

 attains its full growth and perfect colouring is, in this 

 country at least and in captivity, two or three years 

 longer than that stated by Wilson. 



In its immature state, that is to say about the third 

 year, the upper parts of the head and body exhibit a 

 mixture of brown and dirty white, the separate feathers 

 having a ground of the latter colour, and being deeply 

 tipped, and broadly barred along the centre, with the 

 former. The quill-feathers and primary wing-coverts 

 are black, with their shafts of a pale brown ; the secon- 

 dary are considerably lighter ; and the tail, which pro- 

 jects in a trifling degree beyond the extremities of the 

 wings, is brown on the outer quills, and of a mixed 

 white and brown on the inner. The under surface, as 

 far backwards as the middle of the belly, is of a much 

 lighter shade than the upper, being of a dull white 

 with numerous broad streaks of pale brown. In the 

 posterior part it is of a deep brown, the feathers being 

 only slightly margined with white. A similar hue pre- 

 vails on the upper parts of the legs, which are plumed 

 somewhat below the knees. The beak is of a dusky 

 brown ; the cere and legs of a golden yellow ; the iris 

 somewhat lighter ; and the talons deep blackish brown. 

 The latter are long, strongly curved, of considerable 

 power, and extremely sharp at the points. 



The full grown bird measures upwards of three feet 

 in length from beak to tail, and more than seven in the 

 expanse of its wings. Its beak is changed to a bright 

 yellow ; and its head, a greater or less proportion of 

 the neck (according as the bird is more or less advanced 

 in age), and the entire tail, are become perfectly white. 

 An analogous change, as we have before seen, takes 

 place in the plumage of the preceding species ; but 



