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Show 1892.] ON HALIAETUS PELAGICUS AND H. BRAN1CKII. 173 5. On Specimens of Haliaetus pelagicus and H. branickii living in the Zoological Gardens of Hamburg. By HEINRICH BOLAU, Ph. D., Director of the Hamburg Gardens, C.M.Z.S. [Eeceived February 6, 1892.] On Dec. 12th, 1882, we received as a present from Capt. Haveker a very fine specimen of Haliaetus pelagicus, the Giant Sea-Eagle, which he had brought from the A m u r River in Eastern Asia. This bird is still in our possession, and is, I believe, the first of the species that has ever been received alive in Europe. On Feb. 6th, 1887, a second specimen of a giant Haliaetus from Eastern Asia was presented by Capt. B. Dethlefsen, who had brought it from Corea. This bird was so much like the first one-except especially in the want of the white patch on the shoulders-that I long thought it a young of Haliaetus pelagicus. I expected it would get the white shoulder-patches after some time and turn out to be a true H. pelagicus; but year after year elapsed and no change took place. Last summer, when Dr. R. Bowdler Sharpe visited our Gardens, I told him about our birds and communicated to that excellent ornithologist m y observations about our Corean bird. A short time after, Dr. P. JL. Sclater asked rne about our two Haliaeti and directed m y attention to the new species Haliaetus branickii of Taczanowski, described in his " Liste supplementaire des Oiseaux recueillis en Coree par M . Jean Kalinowski" (P. Z. S. 1888, p. 451). I compared m y bird with the description given by Taczanowski, and was at once convinced that our Corean bird belongs to the new species. I now send for exhibition exact figures of our two birds, carefully taken from life, and the following short descriptions of them. The Corean Sea-Eagle (Haliaetus branickii) is of a deep dull slaty-black colour, which inclines to brown only in certain reflexions of light; the streaks of the feather-shafts on the neck are somewhat lighter. The upper and under tail-coverts, the shoulders, and the thighs are black, and only the tail is white. The bill is not very different from that of Haliaetus pelagicus except in colour. The bill and feet of II. branickii are less yellow than those of the other species. The Giant Sea-Eagle (H. pelagicus) is decidedly brown-black ; besides it is at once to be distinguished from H. branickii by its shoulder-patches, thighs, and upper and under tail-coverts being white, so much so that the whole hinder part of our beautiful bird is of a white colour. The iris of H. pelagicus is pale yellow, that of H. branickii of the same colour, but many delicate streaks make it somewhat darker. In both species the margin of the upper eyelid is bare and yellow like the bill; but in H. branickii the bald streak is more distinct than that of H. pelagicus. PROC ZOOL. Soc-1892, No. XIII. 13 |