w w w . d i s t i n c t l y m o n t a n a . c o m
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A
SK A RANDOM MONTANAN TO ENVISION AN
EAGLE, and the chances are good that they will picture
a bald eagle, our national avian emblem, officially desig-
nated by Congress in 1787.
It's such a familiar bird; we see its stylized images on our coins
and paper money, our passports, many federal documents and the
official presidential seal. Many of us are lucky enough to see live
bald eagles nesting in nearby trees or soaring across our Big Sky.
Despite its name, this eagle has a pate full of feathers, so
it's not naked-head bald. e moniker comes from an earlier
linguistic age. When English speakers gave the eagle its com-
mon name in the late 1600s, one of the senses of the word bald
was "bright, shining, white." Bald faced, even to this day, refers to
horses and cattle with white foreheads.
Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus had this notion mind when
he assigned the bird its scientific designation in 1766. Haliaeetus
leucocephalus is Latin for "white-headed fish eagle."
e word eagle comes ultimately from the Latin aquila, mean-
ing simply "dark-colored bird." From this etymological perch
arises the adjective aquiline, "like an eagle." English politician
and author Edmund Burke in 1781 described someone with a
"penetrating aquiline eye," and in 1855, poet Alfred Tennyson
pictured a woman with "the least little delicate aquiline curve in
a sensitive nose."
In the 11th through the 13th centuries, the Old English term
for the bird was erne, and this word survives, remarkably, in the
masculine name Arnold, "eagle power," and the feminine name
Arlette, "little eagle."
CAROL
POLICH
Distinctly Montana Made!
40 Spanish Peak Dr.
Four Corners-Bozeman
406.587.8200
www.black mberfurniture.com
It's a "Chester "
No t a chest o f drawers o r dresser -it 's a Chester.
Our charm ing versio n fo r any where sto rage. A chester suitably
fits in any space to ho ld any thing from undies and sweaters to
silv erware and linens. It 's handy when grabbing tho se last
m inute glov es and scarf o n y o ur way o ut the do o r.
52"w x 52"h x 19"d
E A G L E
