394 The Zoologist — October, 1866. 



powerful of them all, whence he has become the emblem of empire and 

 the omen of victory. (Josephus, de Bello Judico, iii. 5). 

 Accordingly we read in ' Julius Caesar,' Act v. Scene 3 — 



" Coming from Sardis on our former ensign 

 Two mighty eagles fell, and tbere ihey percli'd 

 Gorging and feeding from our soldiers' bauds." 



"When they raised their campe, there came two eagles that flying with a mar- 

 rellous force, lighted upon two of the foremost ensigns, and aiwaies followed the 

 souldiers, which gave them raeate and fed them, untill they came neare to the citie of 

 Phillipes; and there one day onely before the baltell, ihey both flew away.'' — 

 North's Plutarch. 



The ensign of the eagle was not peculiar, however, to the Romans. 

 The golden eagle with extended wings was borne by the Persian 

 monarchs (Xenophon, Cyropajdia, vii), and it is not improbable that 

 from them the Romans adopted it ; while the Persians themselves may 

 have borrowed the symbol from the ancient Assyrians, on whose 

 banners it waved till Babylon was conquered by Cyrus. 



As before observed the eagle was a bird of good omen, and hence 

 we read : 



" I chose an eagle and did avoid a puttock.'' 



The name " puttock " was sometimes applied to the kite, and some- 

 times to the common buzzard. They were both, however, considered 

 birds of ill omen. 



Again, in Act iv. Scene 2, of the same play, we read : 



" I saw Jove's bird, the Roman eagle, wing'd 

 From the spungy south to ibis part of the west, 

 Tbere vanisb'd in the sunbeams." 



This was said to portend success to the Roman host. In Izaak 

 Walton's ' Compleat Angler,' the falconer in discoursing on the merits 

 of his recreation says : " In the air my troops of hawks soar upon 

 high, and when they are lost in the sight of men, then they attend 

 upon and converse with the gods ; there/ore I think my eagle is so 

 justly slyledJove^s servant in ordinary^ 



Mr. Hogg, in a paper " On the Roman Imperial and Crested Eagles " 

 (Annals and Mag. Nat. Hist. June, 1864), says: " The Roman eagle, 

 which is generally termed ih? Imperial eagle, is represented with its 

 head plain, that is to say not crested ; it is in appearance the same as 



