264 EEMINISCEXCES OF A SPOETSMAX. 



commander. The Eoman eagles were not painted on a 

 cloth or flag, but were figures in relievo of silver or 

 gold, borne on the top of pikes, the wings being dis- 

 played, very similar to those now made use of in the 

 French army, and frequently a thunderbolt in their 

 talons ; under the eagle on the pike were piled bucklers 

 and sometimes crowns. This has been ascertained from 

 the medals. Constantino is said to have first intro- 

 duced the eagle with two heads, to intimate that though 

 the empire seemed divided, it was yet only one body. 

 This is proved by an eagle with two heads, noted by 

 Lipsius on the Antonine Column. 



The golden eagle is one of the various species found 

 in the United Kingdom, but chiefly in Scotland 

 and Ireland. The golden eagle weighs about twelve 

 pounds, and is about three feet long, the wings when 

 extended measuring seven feet four inches. The 

 senses of sight and smelling are very acute ; the 

 head and neck are clothed with narrow sharp pointed 

 feathers of a deep brown colour, bordered with tawny ; 

 the hind part of the head is of a bright rust colour. 

 These birds are destructive to fawns, lambs, kids, 

 and all kinds of game, particularly in the breeding 

 season, when they bring a vast quantity of prey to their 

 young. Smith, in his History of Kerry, relates that a 

 poor man in that county obtained a comfortable sub- 

 sistence for his family during a summer of famine out 

 of an eagle's nest, by robbing the eaglets of the food 

 the old ones brought, whose attendance was protracted 

 beyond the natural time by clipping the wings and 

 retarding the flight of the former. In order to extir- 

 pate these pernicious birds, there was formerly a law in 

 the Orkney Isles which entitled every person that killed 



