1892.] ON HALIAKTUS PELAGICUS AND H. BRANICKII. 173 



5 . On Specimens of Haliaetus pelagicus and H. branickii now 

 living in the Zoological Gardens of Hamburg. By 

 Heinrich BolaUj Ph. D., Director of the Hambm-g 

 Gardens, C.M.Z.S. 



[Eeceived February 6, 18^2.] 



On Dee. 12th, 1882, we received as a present from Capt. Haveker 

 a very fine specimen of Haliaetus pehcfficus, the Giant Sea-Ea^le, 

 which he had brought from the Amur River in Eastern Asia. This 

 bird is still in our possession, and is, I believe, tlie first of the species 

 that has ever been received alive in Europe. On Feb. 6th, 1887, a 

 second specimen of a giant Haliaetus from Eastern Asia was presented 

 by Capt. B. Dethlefsen, who had brought it from Corea. This bird 

 was so much like the first one — except especially in tlie want of the 

 white patch on the shoulders — that I long thought it a young of 

 Haliaetus pelagicus. I expected it would get the white shoulder- 

 patches after some time and turn out to be a true H. pelagicus ; but 

 year after year elapsed and no change took place. 



Last summer, when Dr. B>. Bowdler Sharpe visited our Gardens, I 

 told him about our birds and communicated to that excellent 

 ornitliologist my observations about our Corean bird. A short time 

 after, Dr. P. L. Sclater asked me about our two Haliaeti and 

 directed my attention to the new species Haliaetus branickii of 

 Taczanowski, described in his " Liste supplementaire des Oiseaux 

 recueillis en Coree par M. Jean Kalinowski " (P. Z. S. 1888, p. 451). 



I compared my bird with the description given by Taczanowski, 

 and was at once convinced that our Corean bird belongs to the new 

 species. 



I now send for exhibition exact figures of our two birds, carefully 

 taken from life, and the following short descriptions of them. 



The Corean Sea.-I!^ag\e {Haliaetus branickii) is of a deep dull slaty- 

 black colour, which inclines to brown only in certain reflexions of 

 hght ; the streaks of the feather-shafts on the neck are somewhat 

 lighter. The upper and under tail-coverts, the shoulders, and the 

 thighs are black, and only the tail is white. The bill is not very 

 dififerent from that of Haliaetus pelagicus except in colour. The 

 bill and feet of H. branielcii are less yellow than those of the other 

 species. 



The Giant Sea-Eagle (-ST. pelagicus) is decidedly brown-black ; 

 besides it is at once to be distinguished from H. branielcii by its 

 shoulder-patches, thighs, and upper and under tail-coverts being 

 white, so much so that the whole hinder part of our beautiful bird 

 is of a white colour. 



The iris of H. pelagicus is pale yellow, that of H. branielcii of the 

 same colour, but many delicate streaks make it somewhat darker. 

 In both species the margin of the upper eyelid is bare and yellow 

 like the bdl ; but in H. branickii the bald streak is more distinct 

 than that of H. pelagicus. 



Proc. Zool. Soc— 1892, No,_XIII. 13 



