WHITE-TAILED EAGLE. 
177 
gained for this bird ; but though delighting in 
fish, and often procuring this kind of food, we 
have no record by an eye-witness how the scaly 
prey is seized ; it is not a true fisher like the 
Osprey, its structure is very different, and we 
have no authority for believing that it plunges. 
Its congener in America, we know, depends 
entirely on the prowess of another bird for the 
fish it procures, and is, moreover, very awkward 
in the attempts which it has been seen to 
make upon fish in their native element. But 
though fish is certainly the most favourite food, 
nothing seems to come far amiss ; dead ani- 
mals are sometimes even eaten, and he can be 
easily trapped by a bait of raw or newly killed 
meat. In confinement we have, observed no 
nicety whatever, except in discriminating a fish 
from any other kind of food ; and a female which 
has been long in our possession, comes much 
more eagerly to the front of her cage, and 
appears more alert than usual when a trout is 
presented to her view. 
The general colour of the plumage of the adult 
Sea Eagle is a chaste hair brown, of a peculiar 
dull or opaque tint ; on the head and upper 
parts it is palest, the centre of the back and 
under parts being considerably darker ; the head 
and upper part of the neck are covered with 
lanceolate shaped feathers, which are raised on 
M 
