BALD EAGLE. 81 



in Europe. One male, as reported by Degland, has 

 been killed in Switzerland — a female in the kingdom 

 of Wurtemberg ; and it is stated by Brehm to appear 

 sometimes on the sea-coasts of Germany. It is not easy 

 to account for Schlegel's reasons therefore for omitting 

 this bird from the European list. He seems, I think 

 without sufficient reason, to have thrown doubt upon 

 the truth of the various reports of its capture, and 

 considers it to have been confounded with other 

 species. On this point Degland remarks, "The opinion 

 which M. Schlegel gives on this subject, in his twentieth 

 observation, would appear to me of great weight in the 

 argument for erasing this bird from the European list, 

 if M. Nordmann had not mentioned in the "Faune Poli- 

 tique," the capture in the middle of Russia of two Sea 

 Eagles, with all the head, neck, and tail of a pure snow 

 white. After having compared them carefully with other 

 Sea Eagles killed in the same locality, he considered 

 them to be old individuals of F. albicilla, not admitting 

 any specific difference between it and F. leucocephalus. 

 It is probable if the learned naturalist of Leyden had 

 known this fact, he would have been very careful not 

 to erase F. leucocephalus from the European list; for I 

 do not know that F. albicilla ever has, when it becomes 

 old, the head and neck of a pure white, like the tail." 

 The habits of F. leucocephalus are very similar to those 

 of the White-tailed Eagle. An admirable description is 

 given of this bird by Audubon, and his graphic account 

 of its encounter with a Swan on the banks of the 

 Mississippi, has been copied into almost every work 

 upon ornithology. I shall not insert it here, but I can- 

 not help quoting the observations of a recent French 

 writer, M. Mouat, after relating this spirited narrative 

 in his work: — 



VOL. I. M 



