GILPIN ON THE EAGLES OP NOVA SCOTIA. 205 



were five large scales upon the front of the tarsus, five upon the 

 inside toe, thirteen upon the middle, eight upon the outside, and 

 five upon the back one ; the rest of the leg was reticulated or rather 

 covered by roundish small scales. The claws were long, sharp and 

 black, and the soles rough with warty protuberances. The mate 

 of this bird, which was shot almost in the act of striking a peacock, 

 and with the remains of a pullet in her stomach, was larger, and 

 difiTered in having the tail coverts white, the tail on the under parts 

 turning white, the body darker, and the bill turning yellow, with 

 the beak elongating, and curve finer. Thus, here were two imma- 

 ture birds, the one a little advanced of the other in plumage and 

 bill, mating together. In another specimen put up from a dead 

 horse at Steele's Pond, I found the plumage a light clay brown, but 

 otherwise resembling the others, the irides were brownish, bill 

 black-horn colour, cere yellow. The very great size, the extended ' 

 wing, nearly eight feet, the tail in the dried state fifteen inches and ' 

 a half, and the w^hole bird three feet one inch, and exceeding an ■ 

 adult by six inches, (all these dimensions except the first being from 

 the dried bird,) made me think I had found the lost H. washing- 

 toniensis, but the bright yellow feet and robust talons, though 

 differing slightly in their scutellation, so exactly correspond with 

 those of the adult bald, that it left no doubt of its place. On the 

 third moult, that is in the fourth year, these birds, though breeding 

 in the second year, assume their adult plumage. The head, iieck, 

 and tail are now pure white, the other parts deep liver brown, with 

 the edge of each feather paler, giving that fine imbricated look to ■ 

 the plumage. The bill has changed from bluish horn-black to 

 bright yellow, its beak lengthened and contour rounded with a 

 slight notch on the upper mandible, and the irides a wine yellow. 

 The bright yellow robust legs and talons remain the same. This 

 is the bird one meets not seldom on the rugged shores of the Bay of 

 Fundy, perched upon a high overhanging dead pine. He boldly 

 -stands your approach, lazily floating away as a branch of the w^ith- 

 ered limb comes rattling down from his strong grasp. He is a 

 fishing eagle, and always found upon the sea coast, or near water- 

 falls on the inland, though he will eat carrion. 



I was riding one morning among the pleasant hills of St 



