- golden eagle Aquila chrysaetos; the white-tailed or sea eagle Haliaetus albicilla. An early reference to the eagle is found in an Act of Parliament of 1457:
Foulys of reif [prey, plunder] as ernys, bussardis, gleddis, and myttallis...
The majesty of the eagle is encapsulated in the idea of it being Jove's bird. This is a reference to the myth of Jupiter turning himself into an eagle in order to carry off Ganymede. Gavin Douglas's translation of the Aeneid (1513) contains this allusion:
Jovis fowle, the ern, com sorand by.
The use of the word earn to describe two different birds is clearly evidenced in the next two quotations. The classification in the second of these is unusual, but it does seem to refer to the sea eagle.
The golden eagle used formerly to build in our rocks, though of late it has discontinued the practice... they are commonly known among the shepherds by the name of the earn, a visit of which amongst the flock is dreaded as much as that of the fox.
(Statistical Account 1795)
Here does the Eagle nest, and haunt, but it is not the Chrysaetos, but that sort called the Pygargus Hinnularius turneri, or the Ern
(ALEXANDER PENNECUIK A Geographical and Historical Description of the Shire of Tweeddale 1715)