Of the Sea Eagles, characterized by very large bills and nearly bare metatarsi, the biggest is the fish-eating _Thalassaëtus pelagicus_, brown in colour, with white cuneate tail, rump, thighs, and patch on the wing-coverts. It inhabits the coasts, lakes, and rivers of North East Asia, the Liu-Kiu Islands and Japan, rarely wandering to America. _T. branickii_ of Corea is slaty-black, with only the tail and its coverts white. _Haliaëtus albicilla_, the Erne or Sea-Eagle, of which a few pairs remain in Shetland and the west of Scotland and Ireland, used to breed at least as far south in England as the Isle of Man and the Lake District, while in winter immature or even adult specimens still frequently occur in various parts. Generally distributed over the Old World from Greenland to Kamtschatka, it breeds also in the Danube valley, Turkey, Greece, and Egypt, migrating to the Canary Islands, North Africa, Japan, China, and occasionally the Commander Islands. It is brown with white tail, the full plumage not being attained for nearly six years; but very old examples become whitish on the head and neck. In most of its habits it resembles the Golden Eagle, though the note is shriller, and the food consists largely of fish, seized in the talons as it swoops down; it is said to be very destructive to lambs, and, as it eats carrion, it is readily poisoned. In Britain the eyries are now in precipitous sea-cliffs, but of old inland rocks and trees were utilized, as is the case abroad, while {164}in Egypt nests have been found upon the ground in marshes; the two or three white eggs, laid early in the year, are rarely marked with rufous. The representative American species _H. leucocephalus_, the Bald Eagle, has the head, neck, rump, and tail white, and ranges from the North to California and Mexico. _H. leucocoryphus_, with the middle of the tail and the cheeks white, extends from South-East Europe to East Siberia, China, and Burma; _H. leucogaster_, a greyer bird with white head, neck, under parts, and end of the tail, occurs from India and China to Australia and the Friendly Islands; _H. vocifer_ with white head, neck, breast, and tail, but chestnut belly, occupies the Ethiopian Region; _H. vociferoïdes_ of Madagascar is intermediate between the last-named and _H. leucocoryphus_. The river-haunting _Polioaëtus ichthyaëtus_, of the Indian Region and Celebes, is brown, with grey head and neck, white abdomen and tail, the latter broadly tipped with brown; _P. plumbeus_, of similar range, lacks the white base of the tail. The huge nest is placed in a tree and is often lined with green leaves, the two or three eggs being white; the note is loud and plaintive, and the food consists chiefly of fish.