90 Mr. Breeds f ' Birds of Europe 
author evidently thinks that his strong point is the capture in 
the middle of Russia of the two Sea Eagles with all their 
“ heads and necks, as well as tails, as white as snow,” on the 
evidence of Dr. Nordmann, which to our mind tells the other 
way :—“ After having compared them carefully with other Sea 
Eagles killed in the same locality, he considered them to be old 
individuals of F. albicilla , not admitting any specific difference 
between it and F. leucocephalus.” Now it is quite possible that at 
that time Dr. Nordmann had not had much experience of the Bald 
Eagle, and therefore was not aware of the great distinction be¬ 
tween it when adult and the common Sea Eagle. But we feel 
quite sure that, acute observer as he is, had he really got hold 
of an old American bird, he would never for a moment have ima¬ 
gined that it was identical with the European one, and accord¬ 
ingly we believe that the specimens obtained were not examples 
of the H. leucocephalus. We have seen individuals of H. albicilla 
from the Volga, with extremely pale heads; and we can well 
imagine that his birds were like them, the similitude to snow ex¬ 
isting only in the fancy of the Muscovite ornithologist. This is 
by no means so improbable as at first sight would appear. In 
a state of nature, and under a favourable light, we ourselves have 
seen the common Sea Eagle with a head and neck of a white¬ 
ness that absolutely startled us at the first glance ; for the locality 
was not so very far removed from those Norwegian islands where 
Boie asserted that H. leucocephalus bred : but that it was only 
H. albicilla , our faithful telescope soon left us no room for 
doubt. There is another point in connexion with this subject 
which deserves consideration, and which we should feel glad if 
Mr. Bree, or any one else who agrees with him, would enlighten 
us upon. If H. leucocephalus is found, not as a straggler, but 
an inhabitant of the middle of Russia, how comes it that it is 
not met with in the countries lying between that and America ? 
It does not occur in Greenland, has never been observed in 
Iceland, is not found, in spite of the assertions of MM. Nils¬ 
son and Boie, in Scandinavia, and we have it most certainly not 
in the British islands, though, through some mistake or other, 
M. Temminck and Baron Laugier were induced to buy two 
examples at Mr. Bullock's sale, said to have been killed in 
