308 
SEA EAGLE. 
and is so often seen associating with it, both along the Atlantic 
coast and in the vicinity of our lakes and large rivers, that I 
have strong suspicions, notwithstanding ancient and very 
respectable authorities to the contrary, of its being the same 
species, only in a different stage of colour. 
That several years elapse before the young of the Bald 
Eagle receive the white head, neck, and tail ; and that, 
during the intermediate period, their plumage strongly 
resembles that of the Sea Eagle, I am satisfied from my own 
observation on three several birds, kept by persons of Phila- 
delphia. One of these, belonging to the late Mr Enslen, 
collector of natural subjects for the Emperor of Austria, was 
confidently believed by him to be the Black, or Sea Eagle, 
until the fourth year, when the plumage on the head, tail, and 
tail-coverts, began gradually to become white ; the bill also 
exchanged its dusky hue for that of yellow ; and, before its 
death, this bird, which I frequently examined, assumed the 
perfect dress of the full-plumaged Bald Eagle. Another 
circumstance, corroborating these suspicions, is the variety 
that occurs in the colours of the Sea Eagle. Scarcely two of 
these are found to be alike, their plumage being more or less 
diluted with white. In some the chin, breast, and tail- 
coverts are of a deep brown ; in others nearly white ; and 
in all evidently unfixed, and varying to a pure white. 
Their place and manner of building, on high trees, in the 
neighbourhood of lakes, large rivers, or the ocean, exactly 
similar to the Bald Eagle, also strengthens the belief. 
At the celebrated Cataract of Niagara, great numbers of 
these birds, called there Gray Eagles, are continually seen 
sailing high and majestically over the watery tumult, in com- 
pany with the Bald Eagles, eagerly watching for the mangled 
carcasses of those animals that have been hurried over the 
precipice, and cast up on the rocks below, by the violence of 
the rapids. These are some of the circumstances on which 
my suspicions of the identity of those two birds are founded. 
In some future part of the work, I hope to be able to speak 
with more certainty on this subject. 
