208 The White-Shouldered Eagle 
Everybody has heard of the Prussian Orders of the Black and Red 
Eagle and of the difficulty certain folk have to avoid one or other 
of these honours, which according to report is only equalled by 
that of escaping death. But in some parts of Europe the existence 
of a real Black Eagle not merely of an Eagle which in certain 
lights and in a certain condition of plumage has a black appearance 
is with many an article of faith. Nowhere is this more implicitly 
accepted than among the ranks of a certain regiment in our Service, 
which was awarded as a distinctive badge a “ Black Eagle” of 
heraldic fame, in recognition of its services. 
Many years ago I chanced to be dining with this regiment and, 
as ill-luck would have it, was asked if I had ever met with the 
famous Black Eagle during my ornithological researches. I was 
obliged to say ‘‘ No,” and weakly added that I had never vet made 
out what bird had given rise to the heraldic title. The officers 
hastened to assure me that the Black Eagle was a well-known 
although extremely rare species only to be found in a remote part 
of the Carpathians and that their late colonel had gone to immense 
trouble and expense to obtain a specimen to present to the regiment. 
Soon the mess sergeant appeared bearing a framed and glazed case 
in which was an embroidered satin cloth bearing the ‘* Honours” of 
the corps and in the centre a most imposing black bird set up in 
heraldic style with wings outspread on either side of its head and 
legs and feet in the approved attitude. Black it was most certainly, 
inky black, in fact, there was a great deal more black than of eagle 
about it. Suffice to say that the wily purveyor of this weird and 
hitherto undescribed species had obeyed the peremptory military 
order of the colonel to provide him at all costs and without delay 
with a Black Eagle, by artistically attaching a pair of Raven's 
wings, legs and feet to the head of a hideous Egyptian Vulture 
which he had dyed black asa coal. There was no possible escape 
from it. 
