BOOK X. III. 6-8 



eagle, and also the hare-eagle,"is smallest in size and 

 of outstanding strength ; it is of a blackish colour. 

 It is the only eagle that rears its ovvn young, whereas 

 all the others, as we shall describe, drive tliem away ; 

 and it is the only one that has no scream or cry. Its 

 haunt is in the mountains. To the second kind be- 

 longs the white-rump eagle found in towns and in 

 level country ; it has a whitish tail. To the third the 

 morphnos,'' which Homer also calls the dusky eagle, 

 and some the plaiigos and also the duck-eagle ; it is 

 second in size and strength, and it Uves in the neigh- 

 bourhood of lakes. Phemonoe,<^ who was styled 

 Daughter of Apollo, has stated that it possesses teeth, 

 but that it is mute and voiceless ; also that it is the 

 darkest of the eagles in colour, and has an exception- 

 ally prominent tail. Boethus also agrees. It has a 

 clever device for breaking tortoise-shells that it has 

 carried off, by dropping them from a height ; this 

 accident caused the death of the poet Aeschylus, 

 who was trying to avoid a disaster of this nature that 

 had been foretold by the fates, as the story goes, 

 by trustfully relying on the open sky.*^ Next, the 

 fourth class comprises the hawk-eagle, also called 

 the mountain stork, which resembles a vulture in 

 having very small wings but exceeds it in the size 

 of its other parts, and yet is unwarUke and degener- 

 ate, as it allows a crow to flog it. It is always 

 ravenously greedy, and keeps up a plaintive scream- 

 ing. It is the only eagle that carries away the dead 

 bodies of its prey ; all the others after kilhng ahght 

 on the spot. This species causes the fifth kind to be 

 called the ' true eagle,' as being the genuine kind and 

 the only pure-bred one ; it is of medium size and dull 

 reddish colour, and it is rarely seen. There remains 



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