Where does the bald eagle get its name from?

Origin: 1688 Bald is beautiful in America today, thanks to a name chosen three centuries ago and explained in a 1688 scientific account: "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, http://www.answers.com/topic/whence it is so named."