22 
FALCO FULVUS. 
cream colour, minutely sprinkled with specks of ash, 
and dusky, and ending in a broad band of deep dark 
brown, of nearly one-third its length ; chin, cheeks, and 
throat, black ; whole lower parts, a deep dark brown, 
except the vent and inside of the thighs, which are 
white, stained with brown ; legs thickly covered to the 
feet with brownish white down, or feathers; claws, black, 
very large, sharp, and formidable, the hind one full two 
inches long. 
The ring-tail eagle is found in Russia, Switzerland, 
Germany, France, Scotland, and the northern parts of 
America. As Marco Polo, in his description of the 
customs of the Tartars, seems to allude to this species, 
it may be said to inhabit the whole circuit of the arctic 
regions of the globe. The golden eagle, on the contrary 
is said to be found only in the more w arm and temperate 
countries of the ancient continent. Later discoveries, 
however, have ascertained it to be also an inhabitant of 
the United States. 
SUBGENUS II. HALI&TOSy SA VIGNY. 
4 . FALCO LEUCOCEPHALUS , LINN. WHITE-HEADED, OB, BALD 
EAGLE,* WILSON. 
WILSON, PLATE XXXVI. f EDINBURGH COLLEGE MUSEUM. 
This distinguished bird, as he is the most beautiful 
of his tribe in this part of the w r orld, and the adopted 
emblem of our country, is entitled to particular notice. 
* The epithet bald , applied to this species, whose head is thickly 
covered with feathers, is equally improper and absurd with the 
titles goatsucker, kingsfisher, &c. bestowed on others ; and seems 
to have been occasioned by the white appearance of the head, when 
contrasted with the dark colour of the rest of the plumage. The 
appellation, however, being now almost universal, is retained in the 
following pages. 
f This plate represents the adult bird. 
