482 pliny's :N-ATaEAL h'istoet. [BookX. 



the least in size of them all, hut the most remarkable for its 

 strength, is of a blackish colour. It is the only one among 

 al]. the eagles that feeds its young ; for the others, as we shall 

 mention just now, diive them away; it is the only one too 

 that has neither cry nor murmur ; it is an inhabitant of the 

 mountains. The second kind is the pygargus,^^ an inhabitant 

 of the cities and plains, and distinguished by the whiteness 

 of its tail. The third is the morphnos,^^ which Homer also 

 calls the ''percnos," while others, again, call it the " plangus" 

 and the " anataria ;" it is the second in si^e and strength, and 

 dwells in the vicinity of lakes. Phemonoe, who was styled 

 the ''daughter of Apollo," has stated that this eagle has teeth, 

 but that it has neither voice nor tongue ; she says also that it 

 is the blackest of all the eagles, and has a longer tail than the 

 rest ; Boeus is of the same opinion. This eagle has the instinct 

 to break the shell of the tortoise by letting it fall fi*om aloft, 

 a circumstance which caused the death of the poet ^schylus. 

 An oracle, it is said, had predicted his death on that day by 

 the fall of a house, upon which he took the precaution of 

 trusting himself only under the canopy of the heavens. 



The fourth kind of eagle is the '' percnopterus,"" also called 

 the " oripelargus ;""^ it has much the appearance of the vulture, 



iNTauman and Savigny, when it is old is almost all black, and without spots ; 

 only the young being spotted. 



2" From the Greek Truy?/ apyrjy "white tail." Cuvier remarks, that 

 this is copied exactly from Aristotle, except that he says nothing about the 

 whiteness of the tail, which is an interpolation. The feathers as described 

 agree with those of the common eagle, the Falco fulvus, which is strong 

 enough to seize a fawn. As regards its habit, he says, of dwelling on 

 plains, that would agree better with the Jean le blanc of the French, the 

 Falco Gallicus ; while the name of pygargus is commonly applied, at the 

 present day, to the great sea-eagle, the Falco albicilla ; which frequents 

 lakes and the sea-shore, and therefore corresponds more nearly with the 

 haliaetus of Pliny. 



21 Cuvier says, that he is almost tempted to believe that it is the bal- 

 busard, the Falco halisetus, that is here meant, as it has a black back, and 

 lives in the vicinity of lakes. But then, he remarks, it lives on fish and 

 not aquatic birds ;' while, on the other hand, the little eagle of Buffon, the 

 Falco nsevio, often seizes ducks and other aquatic animals. He is inclined 

 then, notwithstanding the apparent confusion, to take this morphnos for 

 the modern small eagle. The words fiop<pv6Q and TrspKvdg signify " black." 



22 From the Greek, meaning " black wing.'' 



23 '< Mountain stork." Buffon tliinks that this is the great brown vul- 

 ture ; Cuvier, the great white-headed eagle. 



