1892.] ON HALIAETUS PELAGICUS AND n. BRANlCKIl. 173 



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

 living in the Zoological Gardens of Hamburg. By 

 Heinrich Bolau, Ph. D., Director of the Hambm^g 

 Gardens, C.M.Z.S. 



[Received February 6, 1892.] 



On Dec. 1 2tli, 1 882, we received as a present from Capt. Haveker 

 a very fine specimen of Haliaetus pelagicus, the Giant Sea-Eagle, 

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

 bird is still in our possession, and is, I believe, the 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 the 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 he a true H. pelagicus ; but 

 year after year elapsed and no change took place. 



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

 told him about our birds and communicated to that excellent 

 ornithologist 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 bramcMi of H- 

 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-Eagle {Haliaetus branickii) is of a deep dull slaty- 

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

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

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

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

 different from that of Haliaetus pelagicus except in colour. The _j_ 

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

 species. 



The Giant Sea-Eagle {H. pelagicus) is decidedly brown-black ; 

 besides it is at once to be distinguished from H. branichii 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. branichii 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 bill ; but in H. branickii the bald streak is more distinct 

 than that of H. pelagicus. 



Proc. Zool. Soc— 1892, No. XIII. 13 



