Face, crown of the head and throat blackish brown, tinged with rufous, giving it a striated appearance, bounded in front above the nostrils with whitish; feathers at the back of the head, which are lengthened into a short occipital crest, back of the head, back, and sides of the neck, all the under surface, thighs and under tail-coverts rufous, all but the thighs and under tail-coverts with a stripe of black down the centre of each feather; back, rump and wings brown, the centre of the wing lighter; primaries brownish black, becoming darker at the tip, and barred throughout with greyish buff, which is conspicuous on the under surface, but scarcely perceptible on the upper, except at the base of the inner webs; under surface of the wing mottled with reddish brown and black; tail mottled greyish brown, crossed by seven or eight distinct bars of blackish brown, the tips being lighter; cere and bill lead-colour, passing into black at the tip; eye reddish hazel, surrounded by a narrow blackish brown eyelash; feet and toes very light lead-colour.
The figure is about three-fourths of the natural size.
ICHTHYIAËTUS LEUCOGASTER.
J & E Gould delt C. Hullmandel Imp.
ICHTHYIAËTUS LEUCOGASTER.
White-bellied Sea-eagle.
Falco leucogaster, Lath. Ind. Orn., vol. i. p. 13.—Gmel. Linn., vol. i. p. 157.—Temm. Pl. Col. 49.
White-bellied Eagle, Lath. Gen. Syn., vol. i. p. 33.—Ib. Gen. Hist., vol. i. p. 242.
Haliæetus leucogaster, Gould, Syn. Birds of Australia, Part III.
—— —— sphenurus, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc., Part V. 1837, p. 138.—Ib. Syn. Birds of Australia, Part III. young.
I have little doubt that this noble species of Sea-eagle will be found to extend its range over all those portions of the Australian continent that present situations suitable to its peculiar habits. It has been observed along the whole southern coast, from Moreton Bay on the east to Swan River on the west, including Tasmania and all the small islands in Bass’s Straits. It has neither the boldness nor the courage of the Wedge-tailed Eagle, Aquila fucosa, whose quarry is frequently the Kangaroo and the Bustard; and although, at first sight, its appearance would warrant the supposition that it pursues the same means for obtaining living prey as the true Pandion, by the act of submersion, yet I can affirm that this is not the case, and that it never plunges beneath the surface of the water, but depends almost entirely for its subsistence upon the dead Cetacea, fish, etc., that may be thrown up by the sea and left on the shore by the receding waves; to which, in all probability, are added living mollusks and other lower marine animals: its peculiar province is consequently the sea-shore, and it especially delights to take up its abode on the borders of small bays and inlets of the sea, and rivers as high as they are influenced by the tide; nevertheless, it is to be met with, though more rarely, on the borders of lakes and inland streams, but never in the forests or sterile plains of the interior. As it is almost invariably seen in pairs, it would appear to be permanently mated; each pair inhabiting a particular bay or inlet, to the exclusion of others of the same species. Unless disturbed or harassed, the White-bellied Sea-eagle does not shun the abode of man, but becomes fearless and familiar. Among the numerous places in which I observed it was the Cove of Sydney, where one or two were daily seen performing their aërial gyrations above the shipping and over the tops of the houses: if I mistake not, they were the same pair of birds that found a safe retreat in Elizabeth Bay, skirting the property of Alexander Macleay, Esq., and where they might be frequently seen perched on the bare limb of a tree by the water’s edge, forming an interesting and ornamental addition to the scene. In Tasmania it is especially abundant in D’Entrecasteaux Channel, and along the banks of the Derwent and the Tamar; and there was scarcely one of the little islets in Bass’s Straits but was inhabited by a pair of these birds, which, in these cases, subsisted in a great measure on the Petrels and Penguins, which resort there in great numbers to breed, and which are very easily captured.