Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1945-05-04
This and That
By Charles +, TYdcs,csll.
- "INDIANHEAD, Md.

Dear Sir: =.
Il am . regular reader Of your in
teresting column in The Evening Star.
Yesterday Q great bird perrhed on
the cross arm of pole carrying the
electric power lines into my country
home Here.
His spreading wings when in the
act Of taking flight contacted two live
wires and the bird was eiectrocuted.
1T Is evidently some kind OF an
eagle. The wing spread Is s feet, and
the length from hooked beak to end
Of tail Is 80 inches.
The outer plunage is brown. It has
no white head and tail like the bald
eagle, but the breast is white, much
notified with brown, and there Is a
good deal of white underneath the outer
brown plumage all over the body.
The legs are feathered down to the
feet. There are no noticeable bars on
tail or body.
Il am inclosing one of the wing
feathers.
ut is much too large to be any kind
OF a hawk that ever heard Of. Please
tell me what 1t is.
Sincerely yours, T. F. Men"
Y y X
The bird probably was an immature
bald eagle, but it may have been
golden eagle.
The bald eagle babies are giants,
larger than their parents, and for three
years having different color scheme.
In its dark brown dress, the young
bald eagle has often been mistaken for
the golden eagle.
When Matched, the young are covered
with a whitish down, but they soon
acquire their first plumage, brown mot
tied with whitish.
During these first three years the
baby birds are very different looking
from their parents, and during the first
year after leaving the nest are larger
than either parent. the wing spread
being a foot more.
The length Of the mature bald eagle
is from 80 to IS inches for the male;
the female is from "a to 43 inches.
The wing spread of the parent birds
Is from 6h to TX feet. This would
mean that the babies have spread of
from 7 to feet.
These babies even fooled the great
Audubon, who thought them a distinct
species. and called them Bird Of WASH
ington."
Popular names of black eagle and
gray eagle mean the young baldies.
1t Is an interesting fact that Ben
Franklin wanted to make the wild
turkey our national bird, but by act of
Congress on June 20. 1882, the bald
eagle was selected, on account of its
majestic appearance and mastery of the
air. This latter now seems prophetic.
"The Bird of Birds" of the National
Geographic Society says: THE bald
eagle in immature dress is the only
bird with which it (the golden eagle)
might be confused, but as these two
ordinarily range in different types of
country, there is little opportunity to
mistake them. The golden eagle has
feathers extending clear to the toes,
but in the bald eagle the lower part
OF the leg is covered with hard scales.
This difference serves to distinguish
/; the two IN any plumage."
In the Washington region, the bald
eagle is permanent resident, more
commonly observed In summer. They
breed near Mount Vernon, and have
been found near Great Falls.
The golden eagle, on the other hand,
IS an accidental visitor from the North,
but several specimens have been taken
down the Potomac in Maryland and vtr-
ginia in recent years.
Bird books usually say that the tar
sus, or ankle, Of the bald eagle is bare
for an inch or more above the base of
the toes while they declare that in
the golden eagle "the legs are feathered
to the toes.
II our correspondents observation is
accurate. he has golden eagle. but it
depends upon how much he includes
IN the term foot" II by that he In
cludes part Of the leg. it would be q
bald eagle, but II he really means the
toss alone, It would BE- the golden
eagle.