453 
Mr. R. B. Sharpens Catalogue of Accipitres. 
the ^ Proceedings of the California Academy of Science ^ for 
1873-74^ the only Sea-Eagle given as an inhabitant of the 
Aleutian Islands is H. leucocephalus, a species exceedingly 
well known as taking the place of H. alhicUla throughout 
Northern America^ with the exception of Greenland. 
Before leaving the subject of H. alhicUla^ I may mention that 
the very curious ash-coloured specimen from Ireland which 
was living many years ago in the Gardens of the Zoological 
Society, and which was figured in Meyer^s ^ British Birds/ 
is now preserved in the Norwich Museum. 
The pure white head, which distinguishes the North- 
American H. leucocephalus in its adult plumage, is also a 
characteristic of the adult dress of two other species of this 
genus, H. vocifer and H. leucogasteVj the latter of which is 
remarkable as being the most purely oceanic of the Sea- 
Eagles, both in its habits, and also in its widely extended 
range over the seas and islands of the east, which is well 
epitomized in Mr. Sharpens volume, and more particularly 
detailed at p. 2 of Count T. Salvadori^s recent ^ Prodromus 
Ornithologise Papuasiee et Moluccarum.'’ 
H. vocifer is especially noticeable as one of the most beauti¬ 
fully coloured of the birds of prey, and is certainly facile 
princeps^^ amongst the Sea-Eagles in this respect. 
Mr. Sharpe gives the habitat of H. vocifer as the whole 
of Africa/^ but this is not quite correct, as it is certainly 
absent from the most northern parts of that continent, and, 
so far as I am aware, does not occur, except perhaps very 
accidentally, to the north of the twentieth degree of north 
latitude. 
Few facts connected with the Sea-Eagles are more curious 
than the circumstance of one species, H. vociferoides, being 
peculiar to the island of Madagascar, and even there, to judge 
from the very small number of specimens that have reached 
Europe*, existing, probably, in very limited numbers. 
It may naturally be expected that this Eagle should some¬ 
times wander to the smaller islands adjacent to Madagascar; 
* I am not aware of the existence of a single entire specimen of the 
Madagascar Sea-Eagle in any museum in this country. 
SER. IV.-VOL. II. 2 I 
