THE WHITE-BELLIED SEA-EAGLE. 
199 
It occurs down the Malay peninsula and is found in Java^ Borneo, 
Celebes and the Philippine Islands, and it extends through China to 
Japan. Pere David states that it breeds in the mountains of Pekin, 
Genus HALIAETUS, Savigny. 
573. HALIAETUS LEUCOGASTER. 
THE WHITE-BELLIED SEA-EAGLE. 
Palco leucogaster, Gm. Syst. Nat. i. p. 257. Haliaetus leucogaster, Jerd. B. 
Ind. i. p. 84 ; Sharpe, Cat. Birds B. Mus. i. p. 307 ; Legge, Birds Ceylon, p. 67 ; 
Hume I Bav. S. F. vi. p. 17 ; II?c?ne, S. F. viii. p. 82 ; Oates, 8. F. x. p. 180. 
Cuncuma leucogaster, Hume, Rough Notes, ii. p. 259 ; id. Nests and Eggs, 
p. 48 ; Salvad. Ucc. Born. p. 5 ; Hume, S. F. ii. p. 149 ; id. S. F. iv. pp. 422, 
461 ; Armstrong, S. F. iv. p. 298. Blagrus leucogaster, Bl. B. Burm. p. 64. 
Description. — Male and female. The whole head, neck and lower 
plumage white; tail black, broadly tipped with white; primaries and 
secondaries blackish, the outer webs of the former washed with grey ; 
back, rump, upper tail-coverts, wing-coverts, scapulars and tertiaries ashy 
grey. 
The young bird has those parts brown which are ashy grey in the adult, 
and the white portions of the plumage tinged with fulvous ; the white 
band at the end of the tail is absent, the whole tail being dark brown 
marked with paler brown. 
Irides light brown ; cere and gape leaden grey ; upper mandible dusky 
brown, shading into a greyish blue towards its junction with the cere ; 
lower mandible bluish grey, tipped with dusky brown ; legs and feet dirty 
yellowish white ; claws black. [Armstrong.) 
Length about 28 inches, tail 10, wing 22, tarsus 4, bill from gape 2'5« 
The female is rather larger. 
The White-bellied Sea-Eagle is found in more or less abundance along 
the whole coast of Burmah, and also up the larger rivers for a distance of 
sixty miles or so. 
It is met with on the coasts of India and Ceylon, the Malay archipelago 
and islands to Australia and the Pacific Ocean. 
This Eagle is entirely a maritime species, being apparently never, or 
very seldom indeed, found near fresh water. Its food is chiefly sea-snakes. 
It makes a large stick nest on high trees and lays two eggs. Mr. Hume 
observed a vast number of these Eagles breeding on Pigeon Island oflp the 
west coast of India. 
