ICHTHYIAETUS LEUCOGASTER. 



(White-hellied Sea Eagle.) 



Male— Head, neck, and all the under surface, wliite ; the tail feathers, for about a-third of their length, terminated by the same color ; 

 primaries and base of the tail feathers, blackish brown ; the rest of the plumage, grej ; bill, bluish horn color, tipped with black ; cere and 

 lores, bluish lead color ; irides, dark brown ; feet, whitish, inclining to yellow ; claws, black. 



The female is similar to the male, but much larger in size. The young have the head, throat, and back of the neck, buff; back 

 and wings, brown, each feather tipped with whitish buff; abdomen, buff, each feather margined with brown ; bill, brown. 

 Length of female, 32 inches ; wing, 22 ; tail, 10| ; bill, 2f ; tarsus, 4. 



This noble species of eagle is found all round the coasts of Australia and Tasmania, where it frequents bays and inlets of the 

 sea, often ascending the streams running into the same. In such situations its food consists of fish and other marine animals, principally 

 such as have been left dead upon the shore. It is also occasionally met with in the larger rivers of the interior, where its food for the most 

 part consists of waterfowl, especially ducks. It is not known to dive beneath the surface. Mr. Coxen informs me that, in November, 1865, 

 he took from this bird a saAv-fish two feet in length, which it had just dragged out from a shallow in Pimpama Creek (near Brisbane). He 

 had an opportunity of witnessing the struggle, which was a severe one. The fish is now in Mr. C.'s collection. The flight of this bird is lofty 

 and soaring, and it delights in describing large circles in the air, the pinions when at full stretch being curved upwards. A pair are generally 

 seen together, their union being probably permanent. The nest is a large flat structure of sticks, and usually placed in the fork of a high gum- 

 tree, near the top, the same being re-visited and repaired from year to year at the time of incubation. On islands where there are no trees 

 suitable, it builds on the flat surface of a rock, the materials used being portions of bushes and low shrubs. The nest seen and described by 

 Captain Cook on Eagle Island in the Great Barrier Eeef, and which doubtless belonged to this bird, was 2 feet high, and 26 feet in circum- 

 ference. The eggs are two in number, white, faintly stained with reddish brown : size, 2 inches 9 lines long, by 2 inches 3 lines broad. 



