152 



EAGLE. 



delphia was believed to be the Sea Eagle, (H. albicilla,) till in the 

 fourth year it assumed the white plumage of the head. 



Temminck describes this bird to have its " plumage very irregularly 

 stained and varied with clear and deep brown, the beak black, and the 

 iris of a clear brown, in the young state ; the plumage of a pretty 

 bright chocolate brown ; the beak, feet, and iris, of a yellowish white, 

 in the adult state ; the tail always a little longer than the wings. 



The young- birds, he tells us, are very difficult to distinguish from 

 those of the common eagle, (H. albicilla^ Savigny,) though their 

 plumage is less regularly varied in the brown colours, and the tail 

 always a little longer. At the second moult, and often even at the 

 first, the distinction becomes easy, though the plumage is not perfect 

 till the third or fourth moult. " There have been kept," he adds, 

 " many individuals of this species at Berlin, Paris, and London. I 

 have observed the indicated variations upon those in the menagerie at 

 Paris, where there are five of different ages." 



Mr. Vigors seems to have come to the same conclusion with Wilson 

 when he tells us, " our common Sea Eagle (F. leucocephalus,Lixn$ iEus) 

 affords the type of the genus," 1 (Ilaliaetus, Savigny,) and refers us to 

 Wilson, vol. v. pi. 36, for a figure. 2 Trusting to Mr. Vigors's acknow- 

 ledged science upon such points, I had a copy of Wilson's figure en- 

 graved for this work, to illustrate the article Eagle ; but subsequent 

 inquiry has led me to believe the birds clearly distinct. The authority 

 indeed of Temminck alone appears to be quite decisive. " Never," 

 says he, " at any age, do we see individuals of this species (H. albi- 

 cilla) with the head and upper part of the neck of a pure white. I 

 have seen more than fifty individuals which had no white on the head. 

 I have kept them in captivity, and seen many others in menageries, 

 which assumed no white. In the menagerie of the Jardin des Plantes 

 at Paris, one has lived six, and another ten, years ; and I have seen 

 another in a German menagerie, kept for nine years. Very old indivi- 

 duals have the head and the neck of an ashy brown, (brun cendre,) 

 but the iris never becomes yellowish white, as in the //. leucoce- 

 phalus." 



So far as I can judge, this appears decisive ; though some naturalists 

 might be disposed to consider the white colour of the head and of the 

 iris, and the slight elongation of the tail scarcely sufficient to constitute 



1 Zool. Journ. i. 321. 



2 lb. i. 336. 



