ERGOTISM-ERIC. and assumes a gray, brown, purple, violet, and at length a black colour, as the viseid exudation dries and hardens. The structure differs very much from that of the properly developed seed; the qualities are not less different, almost one-half of the whole substance consists of fungin; and the cells contain, instead of starch, globules of a peculiar fixed oilOIL OF ERGOT, to which the remarkable qualities of ergot are supposed to be chiefly or entirely due. Oil of ergot forms about 35 per cent. of the ergot of rye. Ergot appears to have been first observed in rye, in which it becomes very conspicuous from the large size it attains, sometimes an inch or even an inch and a half in length. It is, however, not uncommon in wheat and barley, although in them it is not so conspicuous, from its general resemblance to the ordinary ripened grain. Rye-grass is often affected with ergot, as are many other grasses; and it is of frequent occurrence in maize, in which also it attains its greatest size. Ergot has been supposed to be merely a disease occasioned by wet seasons or other climatic causes. But it appears now to be fully ascertained, that it is a disease occasioned by the presence of the mycelium of a fungus; the spores of which may perhaps be carried to the Hower through the juices of the plant, for there is reason to think that ergot in a field of grain may be produced by infected seed. Mr Quekett, in 1838, described a fungus, a kind of MoULD (q. v.), which he found in ergot, and to which he gave the name of Ergotatia abortifaciens. Link and Berkeley afterwards referred it to the genus Oidium; and they, as well as others, believed it to be the true ergot fungus. The spores of this ergot mould, however, vegetate readily, under proper conditions of warmth and moisture, in situations very different from that in which ergot is produced; and its presence is perhaps a consequence rather than the cause of ergot. The true ergot fungus seems to have been discovered by Tulasne, who published a description of it in 1853. That of the ergot of rye is called Cordiceps (or Claviceps) purpurea; its mycelium alone exists in ergot, but if the ergoted grains are sown, the fungus develops itself in its perfect form, growing in little tufts from the surface of the ergot, with stem about half an inch long, and subglobular head. Allied species appear to produce the ergot of other grasses. Ergot of Rye. Ergot is inflammable; the fixed oil which it contauns, indeed, makes it burn readily if brought into contact with the flame of a candle. It is a valuable medicine, exercising a specific action on the womb, particularly during labour, and by the greater frequency and force of the contractions which it causes when cautiously administered, often most beneficially hastening delivery. Its employment for this purpose is said to have originated-in consequence, probably, of an accidental discovery-with a provincial female practitioner in France. Its introduction into British practice dates only from 1824. It is the ergot of rye which is always employed; also called SPURRED RYE, or Secale cornutum. It has been employed also as a sedative of the circulation, to check various kinds of hæmorrhage. Ergot is administered in various forms-powder, decoction, extract, tincture, oil of ergot, &c.-In large or frequent doses, ergot is a poison, sometimes producing convulsions, followed by death; sometimes gangrene of the extremities, resulting in mutilation or in death. Ergot of rye consists of 35 per cent. of a peculiar fixed oil, 14 of ergotin, 46 of fungin, the remainder being gum, fat, albumen, salts, &c. Ergot burns with a yellow-white flame, and treated with water, yields a reddish coloured liquid with acid properties. In considerable quantities, it is a poison to the lower animals as well as to man. E'RGOTISM, the constitutional effect of Ergot of Rye (q. v.). See also RAPHANIA. E'RIC is the Scandinavian form of the name Henricus, Enrico, and Henry of southern nations. Many kings of the name reigned separately in Denmark and Sweden, and some ruled over the whole of Scandinavia after the union of Calmar. The memory of the two earliest rulers of the name in Denmark merits our notice from their associa tion with the introduction of Christianity. Eric L., who died in 860, protected the Christians in the latter part of his reign, and, under the direction of the missionary Ansgar or Anscharius, founded the cathedral of Ribe, the first Christian church in the land. In his time, the Northmen began those incur. sions into more southern countries, which were destined to exercise so permanent an influence on European history. Eric II. followed in the steps of his father, and permitted Ansgar to prosecute the labour of converting and civilising the people, which won for him the title of the Tutelar Saint of the North. To Eric II. is ascribed the reorganisation of those guilds which finally merged in the munici pal corporations of the middle ages, but which were, at first, a mere modification of the heathen brotherhoods of the Scandinavian heroic ages, and constituted associations, whose members were a privileged class, separated by distinct laws, rights, and duties from the rest of the people. Denmark suffered in the 12th c. in an equal degree from the t vo_Erica who ruled over her, for while Eric, surnamed Emun, exhausted the strength of the land by the indomitable pertinacity with which he endeavoured, by force of arms, to compel the Vandals and other piratical neighbours to accept the Christianity which he thrust upon them, Eric the Lamb' crippled the powers and resources of the crown by his pusil lanimous subserviency to the clergy. The three Erics (Eric VI., VII., and VIII.) who occupied the throne, with only the intermission of a few years, from 1241 to 1319, are associated with one of the most disastrous periods of Danish history. Long minorities, the suicidal practice of dismembering the crown-lands in favour of younger branches of the royal house, and futile attempts to restrain the ever-increasing encroachments of the church, com. bined to bring the country to the brink of destruction. Eric VI. (Plogpenning) and Eric VII. (Glipping) were both assassinated, the former at the instigation of a brother, and the latter in revenge for a private injury. Eric VIII., the last of the name before the union of Calmar, died childless, and was succeeded, in 1319, by his ambitious brother Christopher, wro saw himself compelled to repay his partisans at the expense of almost all the prerogatives and appanages which still belonged to the crown. In Sweden, the first of the name who merits our notice is King Eric, surnamed the Saint, who was ERICEÆ ERICSSON. slain in battle in 1161, after a short reign, which was signalised, in that age of anarchy, by the foundation of many churches and monasteries, and by the promulgation of an excellent code of laws, known as St Eric's Lag. This law contained provisions by which a higher status in society was secured to women, by granting them a fixed proportion of the heritage of their male relatives, and certain definite privileges within their house holds. St Eric waged frequent war with the Finns, and compelled them to adopt the outward forms of Christianity. The two namesakes and descendants of St Eric, who ruled in Sweden during the 13th c., and Eric XII., who reigned from 1350 to 1359, have little claim to our notice, for internal disturbances and wars with their neighbours brought about the same fatal results as those which are associated with the reigns of the Erics in Denmark during the middle ages. In 1412, on the death of the great Margaret, her relative, Eric of Pomerania, succeeded to the triple crown of Scandinavia, in accordance with the articles of the famous treaty of Calmar. The noble heritage that had been bequeathed to Eric required a firmer hand and a braver spirit than his to keep it in check; and his reckless disregard of treaties and oaths, his neglect of his duties, and his misdirected ambition, led, after years of dissensions, maladministration, and disaffection, to the inevitable result that Eric was declared to have forfeited the respective thrones of the several kingdoms, which proceeded to elect rulers of their own. The intestine wars to which this condition of things gave rise, plunged the whole of Scandinavia into anarchy, and sowed seeds of dissension among the three kindred nations, which bore fatal fruits in subsequent ages. The last ten years of Eric's life were spent in the exercise of piracy in the island of Gothland, whither he had retired with his mistress and a band of followers, and from whence he sent forth piratical expeditions to pillage both friends and foes. Eric married Philippa, daughter of Henry IV. of England, whose memory is still cherished in the north, on account of the many noble deeds with which local tradition associates her name. Eric XIV., the last of the name who reigned in Sweden, had the distinction of being at once one of the worst and one of the most unhappy of the name. He succeeded, in 1560, to the throne of his father, Gustaf Vasa, who was perhaps the greatest and worthiest monarch that ever reigned over Sweden, and immediately on his accession, he made known the difference that was so unfavourably to distinguish his reign from that of his father, by quarrelling with his brothers, thwarting the nobles, and opposing the lower orders. His fickleness and ERICHT or E'RROCHT, LOCH, lies in the extravagance were displayed in a succession of north-west of Perthshire and south of Invernessembassies, which were in turn sent to almost every shire, in an uninhabited district, the wildest and European court to demand a consort for this vacillat- most inaccessible in Scotland, amid the Grampian ing monarch, who usually changed his mind before mountains. Its banks rise steeply from the water's his envoys had time to fulfil their missions. Eliza-edge. It is fourteen miles long and nearly one mile beth of England and Mary of Scotland were more broad, and it extends in a south-west direction from: than once the objects of his matrimonial schemes; near Dalwhinnie on the Dunkeld d Inverness but when the resources of the country had been road. By one outlet it joins Loch Rannoch, and by seriously crippled by these costly and absurd expe- another it runs into Loch Lydoch, its waters ultiditions, Eric married a Swedish peasant-girl, who mately reaching the Tay. Its surface is about 1500 ultimately acquired an influence over him which was feet above the sea, and it never freezes. In a cave ascribed by the superstitious to witchcraft, since she at the south end of the loch, Prince Charles lay hid alone was able to control him in the violent paroxysms of blind fury to which he was subject. It is prob able that Eric laboured under remittent attacks of insanity, and that to this cause may be attributed the blood-thirsty cruelty with which he persecuted those of his own relatives or attendants who fell under his suspicion. His capricious cruelties at length alienated the minds of his subjects, who, wearied with the continuous wars and disturbances in which his evil passions involved them, threw off their allegiance in 1568, and solemnly elected his brother John to the throne. For nine years, the unhappy Eric suffered every indignity at the hands of the keepers appointed by his brother to guard him, and in 1577, he was compelled to terminate his miserabl existence by swallowing poison, in obedience to his brother's orders. Singular to say, this half madman was a person of cultivated understanding, and he solaced his captivity with music and the composition of psalms, and in keeping a voluminous journal. ERICEÆ, or ERICA'CEÆ, a natural order of exogenous plants, consisting chiefly of small shrubs, in 1746. are ERICSSON, JOHN, a distinguished engineer, was born in Sweden in 1803. After serving for some time as an officer of engineers in the Swedish army, he removed in 1826 to England, and continued to occupy himself with improvements chiefly on steam machinery and its applications. It is to E. that steam navigation owes the Screw-propeller (q. v.). In 1839 ho went to New York, United States, where ERIE ERIOCAULACEÆ. he has lived since, and has brought out his improved raloric engine, etc. He constructed the iron-clad Monitor which successfully opposed the Merrimack in Hampton Roads, March 9, 1862. See CALORIC EN GINE. the court of Charles the Bald. In the controversies of his time, regarding predestination and transubstantiation, he took part. His philosophic opinions were those of a Neo-Platonist rather than of a scholastic. His love for the mystic doctrines of the E'RIE, one of the five great lakes which empty them-old Alexandrian philosophers was shewn by his selves by the St. Lawrence. It separates Upper Canada and Michigan on its left from Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York on its right. It is the most southern of the five, receiving, at its north-western extremity, the waters of Lakes Superior, Michigan, and Huron, by the river Detroit, and discharging them at its north-east by the Niagara into Lake Ontario. With a length of 240 miles, E. has a breadth varying from 30 to nearly 60 miles, with an area of 9600 square miles. It is 16 feet below Lake Huron, and 322 and Hjort's Joh. E. oder vom Ursprunge einer Christlichen und die Wissenschaft seiner Zeit (Frankfurt, 1834), Philosophie (Copenh. 1823), Standenmayer's Joh. E. and Taillandier Scot. E. et la Philosophie Scholastique (Strasburg and Paris, 1843). translation of the writings ascribed to Dionysict the Areopagite, which proved to bo a well-spring of God is the essential ground of all things, from whom mysticism during the middle ages. E. held that all things emanate, and into whom they return again. Pantheism, therefore, lurks in his system. His principal work is De Divisione Nature (pub lished by Gale, Oxford, 1681). One of its leading when both are properly apprehended. E uttered thoughts is the identity of philosophy and religion, his opinions with great boldness, and he exhibited 555 respectively above Lake Ontario and the Atlantic. At its south-western extremity are several islands, no less subtlety and strength of intellect in their defence. whercon the native grape finds a climate more He expressed his contempt for theoequable and an autumn of longer continuance logical dogmatism, and vindicated the authority of than in the regions generally in the same lati- reason over all other authority. His words are: tude in the United States, and where it has, in from authority; and when the former is not conAuthority is derived from reason, and not reason consequence, been successfully cultivated for sev-firmed by the latter, it possesses no value.' Consult eral years past. It is by far the shallowest of the five great lakes. Its mean depth is stated at 120 feet; and from this comparative shallowness, and the consequent liability to a heavy ground swell, as well as on account of the small number of good harbours, the navigation is peculiarly difficult and dangerous. The chief harbours on the south or United States ERI GERON, a genus of plants of the natural shore, besides Buffalo and that of Erie, are those of order Composite, suborder Corymbiferæ, having Cleveland, Sandusky City, and Toledo; and on the heads (flowers) of many florets, the florets of the ray north or Canadian shore, Ports Dover, Burwell, and numerous, in several rows, of a different colour from Stanley. Lake E. receives no rivers of any conse- those of the disc. Two or three species are natives quence. Its commercial importance, however, has of Britain, the most common of which, E. acras been largely increased by art. It is connected by one a stem 16-18 inches high, narrow entire caves, canal with the Hudson, and by more than one with flower-stalks forming a kind of corymb, flowers with the Ohio, while on the British side it communicates yellow disc and pale-blue ray. It has a powerful with the Ontario by means of a still more available odour, which is said to keep away fleas, and the work, the ship channel of the Welland. Its naviga-name FLEA-BANE is sometimes given to the plant. tion generally closes in the beginning of December, Its ashes contain about 5 per cent. of potash, for and the lake remains more or less frozen until March or April. The commercial importance of Lake Erie has been greatly increased within a few years by the establishment of numerous lines of railroads connecting its ports with the interior. The amount of business transacted thereon is almost incalculable. Lake Erie was the scene of a naval engagement between the British and Americans, September 10, 1813, in which the latter were victorious. ERIE, a port on the lake of its own name in the State of Pennsylvania, stands in lat. 42° 8' N., and long. 80° 10′ W. Its harbour, one of the largest and best on the coast, is formed by an island of four miles in length, which, under the appellation of Presque Isle, still preserves the memory of its having been a peninsula. The belt of water which is thus sheltered is known as Presque Isle Bay, and forms a natural harbour for the city. It is now protected by a breakwater. It is 34 miles long and 1 mile wide, and varies in depth from 9 to 25 feet. While much has been done to improve the natural advantages of its position, E. has been connected by means of a canal with the Beaver, a feeder of the Ohio; and this work, independently of its navigable facilities, affords extensive water power to mills of different kinds. It is the terminus of the Philadelphia and Erie Railroad, and is by other lines connected with New York, Cleveland, &c. This port is destined to become an important centre of trade. Pop. (1870) 19,646; (1880) 27,730. ERI'GENA, JOANNES SCOTUS, a famous philosopher of the middle ages, was born probably in Ireland and flourished during the 9th century. Very little is known regarding his history. He appears to have resided principally in France, at the sake of which it is sometimes collected and ERINA'CEUS and ERINACE ADÆ. Ser of whose birth the most different statements are ERI'NNA, a Greek poetess, concerning the date advanced. According to some, she was the intimate friend of Sappho (hence she is likewise called the Lesbian singer), and was born at Rhodes, or on the little island of Telos, situated west of Rhodes; while others maintain that she lived in the age of Demosthenes; and others again, perplexed by such a wide difference in point of time, have recourse to the hypothesis of two poetesses of this name. E. acquired such celebrity by her epic, epigrammatic, and lyrio poems, that her verses were compared with those of Homer, although she died at the early age of 19 The genuineness of the fragments that still exist under her name, has been disputed on good grounds. These have been collected by Schneidewin in the Delectus Poesis Graeca Elegiaca (Göttingen, 1838). Compare Malzow De Erinne Lesbia vita et Reliquiis (Petersburg, 1836). ERIOBO'TRYA. See Loquat. ERIOCAULA'CEÆ, a natural order of endogenous plants, nearly allied to Restiaceae, and containing about 200 known species, many of which are aquatio or marsh plants. The E. are chiefly natives of the cies, Eriocauion septangulare, JOINTED PIPEWORT tropical parts of America and Australia. One speis found in the west of Ireland, and in some of the ern ERIODENDRON-ERLKONIG. last war between Russia and Persia, E. was stormed by the Russian general Paskewitsch, who received the surname of Eriwanski; and by the treaty of peace concluded at Turkmanjai, 22d February, 1828, it was given up by Persia to Russia, along with the province of the same name. It is now an important Russian post, as in former times it formed the bulwark of Persia against the Turks, and afterwards against Russia. In the year 1840 it was much devastated by an earthquake. Hebri les; a little grass-like plant, growing in lakes which have a muddy bottom, and exhibiting small globular heads of flowers. From its botanical affinities, and with reference to geographical distribution, no British plant is more interesting. The E. form a remarkable feature of the vegetation of some parts of South America; but E'RLANGEN, a town of Bavaria, is situated in many of the species the midst of a well cultivated district, on the right bear little resemblance bank of the Regnitz, 10 miles north of Nürnburg. to their humble north- It is a handsome town, and is surrounded by walls congener, being pierced by seven gates; its streets-a great number almost shrubby, 4-6 of which were erected after the year 1706, when a feet high, with leafy, fire consumed a large portion of the town-are much-branched stems, straight and regular. It is divided into the Old ' each branchlet ter- and New Towns, the latter founded in 1686 by minated by a large Christian, markgraf of Bayreuth. E. is the seat of white ball, composed of a vast number of industrial schools, and other institutions. a university, of a gymnasium, of agricultural and smaller heads, placed university, however, is the chief building. It was on peduncles of unequal founded in 1742, and is celebrated as a school of length.' Many of them Protestant theology, is attended by between 400 also grow on arid moun- and 500 students, has a library containing 100,000 tainous regions; others vols. and 1000 manuscripts, and also zoological and in flat sandy grounds, mineralogical collections, &c. E. owes its prosperity which are flooded in the to the migration thither of a number of refugees from France, who were compelled to flee on the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, and who introduced many new branches of manufacture at Erlangen. Besides its extensive stocking and glove manufactories, which provide the greater part of Germany with their goods, E. has great mirror and tobacco factories, and manufactures of combs and horn ware. E. became a Bavarian possession by the treaty of 1809. Pop. in 1871, 12,511. Jointed Pipewort (Eriocaulon septangulare): wet season.-Gardner's ERIODENDRON, a genus of trees of the natural order Sterculiaceae, natives of tropical countries, the thick woody capsules of which 4, tuft of leaves, flower-stalk with contain a kind of wool flowers, and part of creeping surrounding the seeds. root; b, seed; c, bract or scale; These trees are thered, female flower; e, pistil; f male flower. fore sometimes called WOOL-TREES. The wool of E. Samanna is used in Brazil for stuffing pillows. E. anfractuosum, of which one variety, found in the East Indies, is sometimes called E. Indicum, and another found in Africa, E. Guineense, is a tree of great height, 150 feet or more. The African variety or species is called RIMI and BENTANG. Park mentions it by the latter name. Barth says it is generally to be seen growing near the principal gate of large towns in Hansa. Its wood is soft and spongy, chiefly used for making canoes. The seeds of E. Indicum are eaten in Celebes. They are roundish, and of the size of peas. The trees of this genus have palmate leaves. The flowers are large and beautiful ERIVA'N (Persian, Rewan), the fortified capital of Russian Armenia, situated to the north of Ararat, in the elevated plain of Aras or Araxes, lat. 40° 10′ N., long. 44° 32′ E., 3312 feet above the level of the sea. It consists of the town, properly so called, and the fortress, which is surrounded on three sides by high walls, and provided with aqueducts; a stone bridge over the Zenga, which here falls into the Araxes; a barracks, three mosques, one of which has been converted into a Russian church, the palace of the Sardar, and a bazaar. Pop. about 15,000, who are engaged in agriculture and commerce. E. was formerly the capital of the Persian province of Aran, celebrated for its silk. In the beginning of the 16th c., the khan Rewan, at the command of Ishmael, the shah of Persia, erected a strong fortress, which he called after his own name, An Armenian school was established at E. in 1629. bat transferred to Ejmiadzin in 1631. During the The Hungary, in the county of Heves, of which it is E'RLAU (Hung. Eger), an episcopal city of capital, is situated on both banks of the river Erlau, in a delightful valley skirted with vine-clad hills. It is surrounded by old walls, pierced by six gates; has four suburbs, in which the greater portion of the inhabitants dwell; and although in general its streets are narrow and have a neglected appearance, it is rich in fine public buildings. The principal of these are the Lyceum, with a valuable library, and an observatory 172 feet high; the recently built cathe.al, the episcopal palace, the Franciscan and the Minorite monasteries, a richly embellished Greek church, a county hall, and the new barracks. E. has also a gymnasium, an episcopal seminary, a normal and drawing school, a hospital founded in 1730, which possesses a capital of nearly 400,000 guilders, and other important institutions. The two baths, the Turkenbad and the Bischofsbad, both of which are much resorted to during the bathing-season, are supplied from two warm springs which rise from the bank of the Erlau. The cultivation of the vine is the principal occupation of the inhabitants. The E wine, the best red wine of Hungary, is produced in considerable quantities, and is in request even in foreign countries. There are also manufactures of linens, woollens, hats, &c., and an important weekly market, which has a beneficial effect upon the indus try of the town. Pop. 19,815 most of whom are Roman Catholic in religion, and Magyar in race. owes its importance to the very old bishopric founded here by St Stephen in the beginning of the 11th c., and which, in 1804, was raised to an archbishopric. ERLKÖNIG, in German, is the name applied to a poetical, personified, natural power which, according FRMENONVILLE-ERNE. to German poetical authorities, prepares mischief of Britain. It is in its winter dress that it is called and ruin for men, and especially for children, E., and yields a highly valued fur; more valuable, through delusive seductions. The name not con- however, when obtained from the coldest northern nected with the root erle, is synonymous with regions than from more southern and temperate Elfen Konig. The E. was introduced into German countries. In its summer dress it is called Stoat. poetry from the Sagas of the North, through Herder's It displays indomitable perseverance in the pursuit translation of the Erlkönig's Daughter from the of its prey, which consists very much of rats, waterDanish, and has become universally known through voles, and other such small quadrupeds; with young Goethe's ballad of the Erlkönig. hares and rabbits, grouse, partridges, &c. The eggs of birds are as welcome to it as the birds them selves. The E. is a native of all the northern parts of the world. Its range extends even to the south of Europe. It delights in moorish districts, and is tolerably abundant in the north of Scotland. It is from Norway, Lapland, Siberia, and the Hudson's Bay territories that the E. skins of commerce are obtained, which are used not only for ladies' winter garments, but for the robes of kings and nobles, and for their crowns and coronets. E. has thus obtained a distinct recognition in heraldry. In making up E. fur, the tails are inserted in a regular manner, so that their rich black shall contrast with the pure white of the rest of the fur. ERMENONVILLE, a village in the south-east of the department of Oise, in France, in the possession of the Girardin family. It is celebrated for its beautiful and extensive parks, and as being the resting place of Ronsseau, for which reason it is much visited in summer by strangers from Paris. It was also the residence of Gabrielle d'Estrées, the mistress of Henry IV., who inhabited a hunting-tower, part of which is still standing, and bears her name. It became still more celebrated after the death of Rousseau in 1778. During the revolution, his ashes were removed to the Pantheon, but conveyed It had nearly been purchased by the Bande Noire, but a larger sum was offered by Stanislaus de Girardin, the well known liberal deputy, and E. was preserved for the lovers of art, of nature, and of back to E. after the restoration. historical monuments. E'RMINE, white fur, with black spots; the reverse of which, or a black fur with white spots, also used in heraldry, is called Contre Ermine. Ermine is commonly used to difference the arms of any member of a family who is connected with the law. A cross composed of four ermine spots is said to be a Cross Ermine. Ermine. ERMINE, or STOAT (Mustela erminea), a species of Weasel (q. v.), considerably larger than the common weasel, but much resembling it in general form and other characters, as well as in habits. The E. is almost ten inches in length, exclusive of the tail, which is fully four inches and a half long. It is of a pale reddish-brown colour in summer, the under parts yellowish white, the tip of the tail black: in winter-in cold countries or severe seasons-the ERNE (Haliaeetus), a genus of birds of the family Falconidae, and of the eagle group; differing from the true eagles in the greater length of the bill, in the toes and lower part of the tarsi being destitute of feathers, and generally, also, in frequenting the sea-coast and the banks of lakes and rivers to feed on fish, in feeding like vultures on carrion almost as readily as on newly killed prey, and in inferior courage. The only British species is the COMMON E. (H. albicilla), also known as the Sea Eagle or upper parts change to a yellowish-white or almost pure white, the tip of the tail, however, always remaining black. This change takes place more frequently in the northern than in the southern parts of Britain, but sometimes even in the south of England; and when it is only partially accomplished, the animal presents a piebald appearance, and very often remains so during the milder winters Common Erne (Haliaeetus albicilla). White-tailed Sea Eagle. It is much more common in Britain than the Golden Eagie, is sometimes seen even in the south of England and in inland districts, occasionally visiting deer-parks to prey on very young fawns or to devour dead deer; but is of more frequent occurrence in the north of Scotland, doing considerable injury to flocks in Sutherlandshire, particularly during the season of young lambs. Its favourite haunts, where it roosts and makes its nest, are the shelves and ledges of stupendous precipices on the coast, where its scream often mingies with the noise of the perpetual surge. It sometimes also breeds on crags beside inland lakes, as at the Lakes of Killarney, and more rarely even on trees. Fishes are certainly its favourite food, although its mode of procuring them is not well known; but water fowl are also its very frequent prey. It is |