Note 2896 — BOOK X. THE NATURAL HISTORY OF BIRDS.

Μελανάετος, or the “black eagle.” Cuvier says, that this description is copied exactly from Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. ix. c. 32. This eagle, he says, cannot be, as is commonly supposed, the “common eagle.” It can only be, he thinks, the “small” eagle, the female of which, according to Nauman and Savigny, when it is old is almost all black, and without spots; only the young being spotted.