312 



SEA EAGLE. 



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 colour. 



That several years elapse before the young of the bald eagle 

 receive 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 persons of Philadelphia. One of 

 these, belonging to the late Mr Enslen, collector of natural 

 subjects for the Emperor of Austria, was confidently 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 

 gradually to become white ; the bill also exchanged its dusky 

 hue for that of yellow ; and, before its death, this bird, which 

 I frequently examined, assumed the perfect dress of the full- 

 plumaged bald eagle. Another circumstance, corroborating 

 these suspicions, is the variety that occurs in the colours 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. Their place and manner of build- 

 ing, on high trees, in the neighbourhood of lakes, large rivers, 

 or the ocean, exactly similar to the bald eagle, also strengthens 

 the belief. At the celebrated Cataract of Niagara, great 

 numbers of these birds, called there gray eagles, are continually 

 seen sailing high and majestically over the watery tumult, in 

 company with the bald eagles, eagerly watching for the 

 mangled carcasses of those animals that have been hurried 

 over the precipice, and cast up on the rocks below by the 

 violence of the rapids. These are some of the circumstances 

 on which my suspicions of the identity of those two birds are 

 founded. In some future part of the work, I hope to be able 

 to speak with more certainty on this subject. 



