28 THE BIRD OF JOVE. 
bable 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 until 
Babylon was conquered by Cyrus. 
As a bird of good omen, the eagle is often mentioned 
by Shakespeare :— 
“ I chose an eagle, and did avoid a puttock.” 
Cymbeline, Act i. Se. 2. 
The name “Puttock” has been applied both to the 
Kite and the Common Buzzard, and both were considered 
birds of ill omen. 
In Act iv. Sc. 2, of the same play, we read,— 
“TI saw Jove’s bird, the Roman eagle, wing’d 
From the spungy south to this part of the west, 
There vanish’d in the sunbeams.” 
This was said to portend success to the Roman host. 
In Izaak Walton’s “Compleat Angler,” we are furnished 
with a reason for styling the eagle “Jove’s bird.” The 
falconer, in discoursing on the merits of his recreation with 
a brother angler, 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 ; 
therefore I think my eagle is so justly styled Jove’s 
servant in ordinary.” 
“ For the Roman eagle, 
From south to west on wing soaring aloft, - 
