Its natural size, is but little more than half an inch long ; 
the above figure is about six times magnified. 
J. E. DEKAY. 
Art. [X.—Falco Leucocephalus—Bald Eagle. 
[Communicated by Professor Jacop Green, Sept. 1821 ] 
December 23d 1820, I saw a large bald eagle shot in this 
neighbourhood. He measured seven feet and nine inches 
from the tip of one wing to the tip of the other; three feet and 
four inches in length, and weighed sixteen pounds fouror five 
weeks after he was killed. This is larger than the one men- 
tioned by Wilson, which measured seven feet from tip to 
tip, was three feet in length and weighed thirteen pounds. 
The bird shot here was probably not of full growth, as there 
was not the appearance of a white feather on the back of 
his head. This bird is usually called the Grey Eagle ; it 
is very uncommon with us, and so large a one I think has 
never been described. If the accurate biographer of 
American Birds had not assured us that the Grey and Bald 
Eagle were of the same species, differing in colour only on 
account of age, I should have considered this of another 
species. When first seen, the Eagle wasin company with a 
flock of birds on the ground, near some stacks of grain with- 
ina few yards of the road. He exhibited no signs of fear, 
and even ruffled his feathers as if to make an attack. After a 
short time, he rose with difficulty and flew a short distance 
—when shot he clung by his talons to the branch of a tree 
upon which he was sitting for about a minute, and then as 
he was falling to the ground made a last effort with his 
wings, and moved from the place some yards; he was not 
quite dead when approached—but he made no resistance 
upon being taken up. 
Vou. 1V.....No.. 1. 12 
