76 PALLAS'S SEA EAGLE. 



It is still, we believe, an undecided question whether 

 Falco leucoryphus of Pallas and F. niacei the great 

 Bengal Fish Eagle, are the same species. Gray gives 

 the former doubtingly as a synonyme of the latter, and 

 Schlegel hesitates in expressing the opinion whether the 

 birds observed by Pallas and Eversmann were the young 

 of F. macei. 



There is no doubt, however, but that F. leucoryphus 

 is a European species, since in addition to those observed 

 by the naturalist mentioned above, it has been seen 

 and shot by Lieutenant Irby, in the Crimea, and 

 recorded in the "Zoologist" for 1857, p. 5353, in the 

 following words: — 



"White-headed Eagle, (Falco leucoryjrfius.J — Common 

 in the interior of the Crimea; not seen among the rocks 

 by the coast. This bird bred in two instances on trees 

 close to the Katcha River; the nests were about thirty 

 feet from the ground, and very large, formed of sticks, 

 lined with grass and old rags. The remains of a hare 

 was in one nest, in which was also a young bird just 

 hatched, which did not live long, as may be imagined. 

 A very fine specimen was killed with a revolver, while 

 sitting on a tree near the Alma; the bird was appa- 

 rently gorged, and therefore allowed a very near approach. 

 This Eagle is apparently different from the American 

 White-headed Eagle, (F. leucocephalus , J and is not, I 

 think, described in any English work on ornithology. 

 Unfortunately I was not aware of this at the time, and 

 so did not particularly notice it. It is known to the 

 Russian naturalists under the name Leucoryphon. A 

 friend of mine, a good observer of birds, saw one of 

 those Eagles chase an Osprey, and make it drop its 

 fish. I have heard the American Sea Eagle does the 

 same. The head, feet, and sternum of one of these 



