204 BLACK EAGLE. Class II. 



egg; and by them a lamb, a hare, and three 



heath poults. The nest was about two yards 



square, and had no hollow in it. The young 



eagle was black as a hobby, of the shape of a 



goshawk, of almost the weight of a goose, rough 



footed, or feathered down to the foot : having 



a white ring about the tail.' 



Mr. Wlllughby imagines, his first py gar gus, 



or white tailed eagle, p. 61. to be but a variety 



of this, having the same characteristic mark, and 



differing only in the pale color of the head. 



The antients believed, that the pebble com- 

 monly called the cetites* or eagle stone, was 

 formed in the eagle's nest ; and that the eggs 

 could not be hatched without its assistance. 

 Many absurd stories have been raised about this 

 fossil, which (as it bears but an imaginary rela- 

 tion to the eagle) must be omitted in a zoologic 

 work. 



" The black eagle is very common and de- 

 structive in Germany. Btckstein]' says, that in 

 an aery of one were found the skeletons of three 

 hundred ducks, and of forty hares, and that the 



* If the reader's curiosity should be excited, we refer him for 

 information to Pliny, lib. x. c. 3. lib. xxx. c. 21. to Boetius de 

 gemmis, p. 375. to Dr. Woodward's catalogue of fossils, vol. i. 

 p. 53. c. 268, 269. and Crew's Rarities, p. 297. 



f Deutsch. li. 218. 



