22 NORTHERN ZOOLOGY. 



Sea Eagle enables it to profit by the greater industry of the Osprey (in the same 

 way that the Boatswain (Lestris parasiticus) obtains its food from the Gulls), by 

 pursuing it when heavily laden with a fish until it drops it, and then snatching up 

 the prize before it reaches the water. In revenge, the Ospreys occasionally unite 

 to drive the Eagle away from their haunts. 



DESCRIPTION 



Of a male. 



Colour. — The general colour on the dorsal aspect is liver-brown, the edges of the feathers 

 being somewhat paler. The long and pointed feathers on the crown and hind head are white, 

 with brown central spots. A dark-brown stripe includes the orbit and runs along the side of 

 the neck to the shoulder. The quill feathers are brownish-black exteriorly, their inner vanes 

 being whitish, barred with brown. The tail is dusky hair-brown, crossed by eight bars of dark 

 liver-brown, the inner vanes of the feathers being barred alternately with dusky-brown and 

 soiled brownish-white. The under surface of the body is white. Bill bluish-black. Cere 

 bluish. Iris orange-coloured. Feet pale-blue. 



Form, &c. — Bill short and strong ; the cutting margin of the upper mandible is straight 

 to its hooked tip, with the exception of a slight angular projection near the corner of the 

 mouth and an obscure lobe about its middle. The nostrils, oblong-oval, extend, with a slight 

 degree of obliquity, nearly the whole length of the cere. The feathers of the forehead project 

 so as almost to conceal the cere above, and the lores are covered by dark hairs and feathers. 

 The wings, when folded, pass the tail about an inch. The second quill feather is the longest, 

 the third is scarcely shorter, the fourth is half an inch shorter, and the first is an inch and a 

 half shorter than the fourth, or about half an inch longer than the fifth *. All their inner webs 

 are narrower towards their points, but the sinuations are abrupt and distinct only in the first 

 three : the second, third, and fourth have their outer webs also sinuated. The tail is slightly 

 rounded. The tarsi, which are strong and about two inches long, are feathered on the anterior 

 surface only to the extent of half an inch below the joint : elsewhere they are covered by small 

 rounded, subangular, tiled scales, of which the anterior ones are rather the largest. The toes 

 are separated to their bases, and are, with their claws, nearly equal to each other in size, and 

 shorter than the tarsi. The fore toes are protected above by three large transverse scales 

 adjoining to the claws, succeeded by one or two pairs of smaller scales. Four large scales 

 cover near the whole of the hind toe. All the claws are rounded beneath, the middle one 

 alone having a nearly obsolete groove on its inner side ; they are black, tapering, sharp- 

 pointed, and much curved. The soles and under surface of the toes are rough, like small- 

 grained shagreen -f*. 



* In a fine adult specimen before us, just received from New Jersey, the third quill is a quarter of an inch longer 

 than the second, the fourth one inch shorter than the third ; but the first and fifth are precisely of the above propor- 

 tions. Sw. 



f Each scab, in fact, is a small prickle, terminating in an acute point, perceptible to the naked eye, but very re- 

 markable when viewed under a common lens ; they then present a miniature resemblance to the thorny processes on 

 the backs of Skates and similarly formed fish. Sw. 



