522 Miscellaneous. 
at Palmyra, in Syria, a like Eagle is sculptured. (See fig. H. m 
plate 18 of Wood’s ‘ Palmyra.’) 
In my work on Baalbec, I have stated, ‘‘in both”’ the sculptures 
at Baalbec and Palmyra ‘‘the Eagles differ from that represented 
as the attendant bird of Jupiter, by bearing a crest, which may 
possibly allude to the radiated orb or rays of the sun.’ (Trans. 
Roy. Soc. of Literature, vol. vii. p. 300.) 
I will now point out four or five Eagles having a crest or crown, 
and from one or two of which the sculptured birds at Baalbec and 
Palmyra may have been designed by the Roman artists. 
Upon the whole, the species which seems to agree well with he 
sculptures is the Aquila Desmursii. This fine bird is well drawn 
and beautifully coloured in tab. 77 of vol. iv. ‘Trans. Zool. Society ;’ 
but in Hartlaub’s work on the Ornithology of West Africa, it is 
incorrectly written Desmurit (of Jules Verreaux). It occurs at 
Bissao, in Western Africa, and is called by the natives Socolas; it is 
also met with in Abyssinia and Nubia, and along the banks of the 
White River (Bahr el Abiad). Dr. Hartlaub, however, makes no 
mention of its crest. It is much like both 4. pennata and A. nevia. 
It is subject to many changes in its plumage at various ages, although 
its usual plumage presents a rich chocolate-colour ; its tail and the 
extremities of its wings are black. A well-marked “ distinction,” 
Mr. Gurney says, “‘in dquila Desmursii is a well-defined though 
small occipital crest, consisting of from eight to nine pointed feathers, 
the longest of which are fully an inch and a half in length” 
(p. 365, vol. iv. Trans. Zool: Society). 
This bird especially resembles Wood’s representation of the Eagle 
at Palmyra, both im the size and form of the crest; but it differs 
from it in having the ¢arsi hairy to the toes. Being an inhabitant 
- of parts of Africa, in particular of the west coast, we may reasonably 
conclude that the Romans might have been acquainted with it. 
Another noble Crested Eagle is given in the woodcut published 
in the ‘Field’ newspaper, on May 23, 1863. It has recently been 
‘brought to this country; and I visited the living specimen in June, 
last year, at the Zoological Gardens in the Regent’s Park, where it 
had then been about four months; I have also seen the stuffed 
specimen in the British Museum. It was named Harpyhaliaétus 
coronatus by Temminck, and appeared to be shy. The general 
colour of its plumage is a lead-coloured grey, and its fine long crest, 
of a dark grey, becomes nearly black at the end. In this cha- 
racter it agrees with the two sculptured Eagles, and likewise in its 
legs or ¢arsi being bare to the toes. In both of these characters it 
might answer to the sculptured figures at Baalbec and Palmyra; but 
being a native of the New World, in Brazil and Paraguay, we 
cannot suppose that it could have formed the model for the sculp- 
tors or architects of these superb temnles, which were erected 
during the Roman Empire: 
I further noticed a more powerful Eagle among the stuffed birds 
in the British Museunt, which bore a larger and more developed 
crest; but, as it inhabits ““South America and British Guiana,” 
it cannot, for the reason which I have just stated, be referred to 
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