[Ads-l] Bald eagle etymology

[Ken Hirsch]

I noticed on Wikipedia that the entry for the bald eagle (
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bald_eagle) has these sentences:

> Bald eagles are not actually bald; the name derives from an older meaning
of the word, "white headed".

and later

> The bald eagle placed in the genus Haliaeetus (sea eagles) which gets
both its common and specific scientific names from the distinctive
appearance of the adult's head. Bald in the English name is derived from
the word piebald, and refers to the white head and tail feathers and their
contrast with the darker body.[18]

Reference 18 is "Dudley, Karen (1998). Bald Eagles. Raintree Steck-Vaughn
Publishers. p. 7. ISBN 0-8172-4571-5."

Searching on Google books, this idea goes back to at least the 1930s:
https://books.google.com/books?id=WbErAQAAMAAJ&dq=piebald

But this seems questionable to me. One of the first references to the bald
eagle is: "The Second is the Bald Eagle, for the Body and part of the Neck
being of a dark brown, the upper part of the Neck and Head is covered with
a white sort of Down, whereby it looks very bald, whence it is so named."

Published 1693
http://rstl.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/17/206/978.extract

Apparently written 1688 https://www.loc.gov/resource/lhbcb.27239/?sp=1

Any thoughts on this?

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