SEA EAGLE. 
45 
"Woods, had been long the residence of this family of Eagles. The tree 
on which the nest was originally built had been for time immemorial, or 
at least ever since he remembered, inhabited by these Eagles. Some of 
his sons cut down this tree to procure the young, which were two in 
number ; and the Eagles soon after commenced building another nest on 
the very next adjoining tree, thus exhibiting a very particular attach- 
ment to the spot. The Eagles, he says, make it a kind of ho7ne and 
lodging place in all seasons. This man asserts, that the Gray, or Sea 
Eagles, are the young of the Bald Eagle, and that they are several 
years old before they begin to breed. It does not drive its young from 
the nest like the Osprey, or Fish-Hawk ; but continues to feed them 
long after they leave it. 
The bird from which the figure in the plate was drawn, and which is 
reduced to one-third the size of life, measured three feet in length, and 
upwards of seven feet in extent. The bill was formed exactly like that 
of the Bald Eagle, but of a dusky brown color ; cere and legs bright 
yellow ; the latter as in the Bald Eagle, feathered a little below the 
knee ; irides a bright straw color ; head above, neck and back streaked 
with light brown, deep brown and white, the plumage being white, tipped 
and centred with brown ; scapulars brown ; lesser wing-coverts very 
pale, intermixed with white ; primaries black, their shafts brownish 
white ; rump pale brownish white ; tail rounded, somewhat longer than 
the wings when shut, brown on the exterior vanes, the inner ones white, 
sprinkled with dirty brown ; throat, breast and belly, white, dashed and 
streaked with different tints of brown and pale yellow ; vent broM'n, 
tipped with white ; femorals dark brown, tipped with lighter ; auriculars 
brown, forming a bar from below the eye backwards ; plumage of the 
neck long, narrow and pointed, as is usual with the Eagles, and of a 
brownish color tipped with white. 
The Sea Eagle is said by various authors to hunt at night as well as 
during the day ; and that besides fish it feeds on chickens, birds, hares 
and other animals. It is also said to catch fish during the night ; and 
that the noise of its plunging into the water is heard at a great distance. 
But in the descriptions of these writers this bird has been so frequently 
confounded with the Osprey, as to leave little douljt that the habits and 
manners of the one have been often attributed to both ; and others 
added that are common to neither. 
Note — In Wilson's history of the Bald Eagle, he confidently asserts 
that it is the same species as the Sea Eagle, in a different stage of color. 
In his account of the latter, he adduces additional reasons for his belief, 
which is at variance with the opinions of some of the most respectable 
naturalists of Europe. We have no hesitation, from our own experience, 
in pronouncing these birds to be the same ; and deem it unnecessary to 
