SEA EAGLE. 469 
lower parts, a deep dark brown, except the vent and inside of the 
thighs, which are white, stained with brown; legs, thickly covered to 
the feet with brownish white down, or feathers; claws, black, very 
large, sharp, and formidable, the hind one full two inches long. 
The Ring-Tail Eagle is found in Russia, Switzerland, Germany, 
France, Scotland, and the northern parts of America. As Marco Polo, 
in his description of the customs of the Tartars, seems to allude to this 
species, it may be said to inhabit the whole circuit of the arctic regions 
of the globe. The Golden Eagle, on the contrary, is said to be found 
only in the more warm and temperate countries of the ancient conti- 
nent.* Later discoveries, however, have ascertained it to be also an 
inhabitant of the United States. 
SEA EAGLE. — FALCO OSSIFRAGUS. — Fie. 218. 
Arct. Zool. p. 194, No. 86.— Linn. Syst. 124. — Lath. i. 30. — L’Orfraie, mee i 
112, pl. 3. Pl. enl. 12, 415.— Br. Zool. i. No. 44. — Bewick, i, 53. — Turt. Syst. 
p- 144. — Peale’s Museum, No. 80. 
HALIJEETUS LEUCOCEPHALUS.—Savieny. t 
Bald Eagle, Falco leucocephalus, young, Ord’s reprint. 
Tuts Eagle inhabits the same countries, frequents the same situa- 
tions, and lives on the same kind of food, as the Bald Eagle, with whom 
it is often seen in company. It resembles this last so much in figure, 
size, form of the bill, legs, and claws, and is so often seen associating 
with it, both along the Atlantic coast and in the vicinity of our lakes 
and large rivers, that I have strong suspicions, notwithstanding ancient 
and very respectable authorities to the contrary, of its being the same 
species, only in a different stage of color. 
That several years elapse before the young of the Bald Eagle re- 
ceive the white head, neck, and tail, and that, during the intermediate 
period, their plumage strongly resembles that of the Sea Eagle, I am 
satisfied from my own observation on three several birds, kept by per- 
sons of Philadelphia. One of these, belonging to the late Mr. Enslen, 
collector of natural subjects for the Emperor of Austria, was confi- 
dently believed by him to be the Black, or Sea Eagle, until the fourth 
year, when the plumage on the head, tail, and tail-coverts, began grad- 
ually to become white; the bill also exchanged its dusky hue for that 
of yellow ; and, before its death, this bird, which I frequently exam- 
ined, assumed the perfect dress of the full-plumaged Bald Eagle. An- 
other circumstance, corroborating these suspicions, is the variety that 
occurs in the colors of the Sea Eagle. Scarcely two of these are found 
to be alike, their plumage being more or less diluted with white. In 
some, the chin, breast, and tail-coverts are of a deep brown; in others 
nearly white ; and in all evidently unfixed, and varying to a pure white. 
* Burron, vol. i. p. 56, Trans. 
} See io to the adult, p. 325, for synonymes, &e. 
