SOLITARY AND GREGARIOUS. 129 



behind in the camp ; but Marius rejected them alto- 

 gether, and had no use of them at all. And ever 

 since this, is observed ordinarily, that there was no 

 standing camp or leaguer wintered at any time with- 

 out a pair of eagle standards."* 



Josephus and Pliny, however, were wrong if they 

 thought the ensign of the eagle peculiar to the Ro- 

 mans ; for the golden eagle with extended wings 

 was borne by the Persian monarchs,f from whom 

 it is probable the Romans adopted it, as it was sub- 

 sequently adopted from them by Napoleon and the 

 United States ; while the Persians themselves may 

 have borrowed the symbol from the ancient Assy- 

 rians, in whose banners it waved till Babylon was 

 conquered by Cyrus. This may serve to explain 

 why the expanded eagle is so frequently alluded to 

 in the prophetical books of Scripture.^ Referring, 

 for example, to the king of Babylon, Hosea says, 

 " he shall come as an eagle ;"$ and Ezekiel de- 

 scribes Nebuchadnezzar as " a great eagle, with 

 great wings, long-winged, full of feathers which 

 had divers colours ;" and the king , of Egypt as 

 " another great eagle, with great wings and many 

 feathers. "|| It was, no doubt, on the same account 

 that the eagle was assigned in the ancient mythol- 

 ogies as the bird of Jove, a notion which Lucian, 

 with his usual satire, ridicules without mercy, ma- 

 king Momus tell Jupiter he may think himself well off 

 if it do not take a fancy to build a nest on his head.^f 



So far as size and appearance are concerned, as 

 well as in power of flight, the eagle (Aquila chry- 

 saetos, KLEIN) must yield the palm to the condor of 

 America (Sarcoramphus gryphus, DUMERIL), while the 

 head of the latter, " the likeness of a kingly crown 

 has on." Tfce condor, however, has not the honour 



* Holland's Plinie, x., 4. f Xenophon, Cyrop., vii. 



% Paxton, Illus. of Scrip., ii., 13. <j Hosea, viii., 1. 

 || Ezek. xvii., 3-7 ; and La Roque, Voyage, 

 ^f Oewv 



