a naked cere, and sharply hooked at the point. The head and throat are naked, but feathers extend along the back of the neck to the crown. The E.V. is not much larger than a raven. The plumage of the male is white, except the great quill-feathers, which are black. This bird is plentiful in Egypt, where it renders important service-as also in Turkey, Syria, and other countries-in devouring and so cleansing_away carrion from the vicinity of human abodes. It is constantly to be seen in the streets of towns, and seems to be aware that it is regarded with favour, and enjoys the protection of mankind. Europeans in Egypt often call it Pharaoh's Hen, or Pharaoh's Chicken. It follows caravans in the desert, to devour whatever dies. Numbers are often seen congregated together, but the E. V. is not truly gregarious, and lives generally in pairs. Its geographic range extends over the whole of Africa, and great part of Asia; it is common in many parts of the south of Europe, is an inhabitant of the Alps and the Pyrenees, sometimes visits more northern regions, and has been killed in England.

E'HNINGEN, a town of Würtemberg, situated 21 miles south-south-east of Stuttgart, is the rendezvous of a great number of pedlers who traverse the neighbouring districts for the purpose of disposing of their wares. Pop. about 5000.

E'HRENBERG, CHRISTIAN GOTTFRIED, one of the most distinguished naturalists of Germany, was born, 19th April 1795, at Delitsch, in Prussian Saxony. Although he had been originally intended for the clerical profession, he early relinquished the study of theology in favour of medicine; and after having attended the classes at the medical faculty at Leipsic for two years, he removed in 1817 to Berlin, where he graduated in medicine in 1818. His favourite study at this period was botany, and his earliest publications are devoted to botanical subjects, and more especially to such as demand the use of the microscope an instrument with which the name and reputation of E. must ever remain inseparably associated; for to him belongs the merit of having rescued it from the discredit into which it had fallen, and of having been one of the first fully to appreciate its capabilities. In 1820, E. accompanied his friend Hemprich on his travels to the East; and after having visited Egypt, Syria, and Arabia, returned, in 1826, to Berlin, where he was appointed to one of the medical chairs of the university, which he still occupies. The three years which intervened before he again set forth on a scientific expedition, were devoted to the arrangement and classification of some of the abundant materials which he had accumulated in his eastern travels; and to this period belong the composition of his Akalephen des Rothen Meeres-which has largely contributed towards our knowledge of the Medusa-and his Symbola Physica. In 1829, E. accompanied G. Rose and A. von Humboldt on an expedition to the Ural and Altai Mountains, in the course of which he collected materials for his numerous memoirs on the Infusoria, and for his great work, Infusionsthierchen, published at Leipsic in 1838, which have identified his name with the history and study of this department of animal life. E. divided the Infusoria into Rotatoria (now found to belong to higher orders of animal life) and Polygastrica, which correspond more nearly with the Infusoria as now admitted, although many of his polygastric organisms have been found to be vege. table structures, and some to be the larval forms of worms, &c. E.'s researches have not been confined to living organisms, but include fossil Infusoria;

and his great work, Mikrologie, on the application of the microscope to geology, contains the results of his investigations in this department of inquiry. E. is a member of most of the scientific bodies of Europe, and has, for upwards of forty years, been an active contributor to the scientific literature of his country.

EHRENBREITSTEIN (Honour's Broad Stone), a town and fortress of Rhenish Prussia, is picturesquely situated on the right bank of the connected by a bridge of boats. The town of Rhine, directly opposite Coblenz, with which it is

has several mills, a tobacco-manufactory, a flourishing trade in wine, corn, and iron, two The fortress of E. occupies the summit of a precattle-markets, and four annual fairs. Pop. 4501. cipitous rock 490 feet high, and has been called the Gibraltar of the Rhine, on account of its great natural strength, and its superior works. On three sides, the fortress is so precipitous as to be perfectly inaccessible; on the fourth and only approachable side, the north-west, it is fortified by three successive lines of defences, one within another. It is defended by 400 pieces of cannon; has cisterns capacious enough to hold a supply of water for three years, and a well sunk 400 feet deep in the rock, and having communication with the Rhine. E. was besieged in vain by the French in 1688, but fell into their hands in 1799, after a French, on leaving E., at the peace of Luneville, siege of fourteen months. Two years after, the blew up the works. It was assigned, however, to Prussia by the Congress of Vienna in 1814, and under that country was restored and thoroughly fortified. It is now one of the strongest forts in Europe. It is capable of accommodating a garrison of 14,000 men, and provisions for 8000 men for ten years can be stowed in its vast magazines. The view from the fortress, which comprehends a considerable portion of the course of the Rhine, including its confluence with the Moselle, is picturesque in the highest degree.

EICHHORN, JOHANN GOTTFRIED, one of the most distinguished scholars produced by Germany, was born at Dörinzimmern, in the principality of Hohenlohe-Oehringen, in 1752, and studied at Göttingen. He first became rector of the school of Ohrdruff, in the duchy of Gotha, afterwards, in 1775, Professor of Oriental Languages in the university of Jena, and in 1788 removed to Göttingen in the like capacity. Of this university he continued a distinguished ornament till his death in 1827.

His scholarship was almost universal, and he has left numerous treatises on a multitude of subjects, both ancient and modern, classical and Oriental, but he is chiefly known in this country as a biblical critic, and a chief of what is called the rational school. E. examined the Scriptures from an antisupernatural point of view, but applied to their elucidation and criticism an unrivalled knowledge of Oriental and biblical antiquities. Miraculous appearances recorded in the Bible are held by him to be explainable as natural events, and everything is to be brought to the test of reason. Rationalism in this form can hardly be said to exist now, even in Germany; but some of E.'s views as to the historical origin of the canonical gospels have been extensively adopted. His chief works on this subject are a Universal Library of Biblical Literature (Allgemeine Bibliothek der Biblischen Literatur, 10 vols. Leip. 1787-1801); an Introduction to the Old Testament (Einleitung in das Alte Testament, 4th ed. 5 vols. Gött. 1824); an Introduction to the New Testament (Einleitung in das Neue Testament, 5 vols. Gött. 1824-1827); and an

EICHSTADT (earlier AICHSTÄDT, Lat. Aureatum, Arborfelix, or Dryopolis, the last signifying the same as Aichstädt viz., oak-town), a town of Bavaria, is situated in a deep valley on the left bank of the Altmühl, about 40 miles west-south-west of Regensburg, in lat. 48°53′ N., long. 11° 11'E. It consists of the town proper, with four suburbs, is well built, and has several fine squares, one of which is adorned with a fountain, and a statue of St Wilibald, the first Bishop of Eichstadt. Among the notable buildings are the palace of the Duke of Leuchtenberg, containing a museum of antiquities, and some good portraits; the cathedral, founded in 1259, an imposing Gothic structure, with monuments in bronze and marble, good paintings, and fine painted glass; the town-house (1444), with a square tower; and the Wilibaldsburg, or castle of St Wilibald, built on an eminence 1200 feet high, and now used as a barracks. The manufactures are woollen and cotton fabrics, ironmongery, and stoneware; there are also breweries, and several mills. Pop. 7610. E. is of Roman origin, and in 908 was surrounded by walls. The bishopric of E. was founded as early as 745. It came into the possession of Bavaria in 1805. In 1817 it was attached to the landgravate of Leuchtenberg, and in 1817 it was bestowed on Eugene Beauharnois, Duke of Leuchtenberg, in the possession of whose family it still remains.

EI'CHWALD, EDUARD, a Russian naturalist, was born at Mitau, in Russia, 4th July 1795, and studied the physical sciences and medicine at Berlin, 18141817. After spending some years in travel, he returned to Russia, and in 1823 was appointed Professor of Zoology and Midwifery at Kasan. In 1827, he accepted a call to Wilna as Professor of Zoology and Comparative Anatomy; and in 1838 he went to St Petersburg as Professor of Mineralogy and Zoology. E. has been a great traveller for scientific purposes. He has investigated the shores of the Caspian Sea, the Caucasus, Persia, Germany, Switzerland, and France, travelled over the greater part of Russia, including the Scandinavian provinces, and in 1840 made a geological journey through Italy, Sicily, and Algeria. He has unquestionably been of more service to Russia by his geognostic, botanical, and zoological researches than any man since Pallas. His principal writings are Zoologia Specialis (Wilna, 1829-1831), Plantarum Novarum quas in Itinere Caspio-Caucas observavit, Fasciculi (Wilna and Leip. 1831-1833), Travels to the Caspian Sea and the Caucasus (Stuttg. 1834 1837), Memoir on the Mineral Riches of the Western Provinces of Russia (Wilna, 1835), Paleozoic Russia (1840), and in 1851, The Paleontology of Russia (St Petersburg, 1851). E. is a member of all the Russian, and of many foreign academies and learned

societies.

EIDER, or EIDER-DUCK (Somateria), a genus of oceanic ducks, having the hind toe furnished with a deep lobe, and the bill swollen and elevated at the base, and extending up the forehead, where it is divided down the middle by an elongated projection of feathers. The tertials are elongated, and fall down over the wing. This genus is further characterised by the very abundant development of a fine elastic gray down, particularly on the breast, the valuable Eider-down of commerce.-The COMMON E. (S. mollissima) is intermediate in size between a common duck and a goose; not much exceeding the common duck in entire length, because of the comparative shortness of the neck, characteristic of the oceanic ducks, but being about twice its weight. The male is larger than the female; and, in the breeding season, has the under parts black, the upper parts and the neck white, the crown of the head velvety black, the cheeks greenish white. After the breeding season, the white colour almost disappears from the upper parts, and gives place to black, without change of feathers. The female is of

a pale-brown colour, tinged with red, and varied males at first resemble the females, and do not with transverse marks of dark brown. Young acquire the full adult plumage till their third winter. The young are termed Brattocks in many parts of Scotland. The E. is an inhabitant of the northern parts of the world, abounding on arctic and subarctic shores, and becoming rarer in more southern and temperate regions. It is merely an occasional winter visitant in the middle latitudes of Europe, and the Fern Islands are its most southern breeding-place on the British coasts. In North America, it seldom breeds further south than the Bay of Fundy. Great numbers breed on the coasts of Labrador and more northern parts of America, where hitherto the gathering of the down has been generally neglected; but in Iceland and Norway the breeding-grounds of eiders are carefully protected, and are transmitted as valuable inheritances from father to son. Cattle are sometimes removed from islets, in order to induce the eiders to settle upon them, and a strict watch is kept against dogs and foxes. Promontories are sometimes even formed into artificial islets, on the same account, as the E., like many other sea-birds, prefers islands for its breeding. places, probably on account of their greater quiet and security. The nest is formed of fine sea-weeds,

mosses, and dry twigs, if they are to be had, matted and interlaced. The eggs are usually five, sometimes six or seven in number, about three inches long, and fully two inches broad, of a uniform pale green: they are at first deposited without any down, but as incubation proceeds, the mother strips the down from her breast, and places it about them. By it they are kept warm when she at any time has occasion to leave them, but it seems to be indispensable to their being hatched; for if the eggs and down are removed, and if this is done a second time, so that the female cannot afford a further supply, the male comes and contributes for the third set of eggs the down of his breast, which is of a paler colour. The common practice in Norway and Iceland is to take away the eggs and down twice, leaving the third set of eggs to increase the number of the species. The eiders of the Icelandic and Norwegian breeding-grounds shew so little alarm at the approach of visitors, that the females will permit themselves to be touched as they sit on their nests, the males moving about close beside them, but agitated and disturbed. The nests are often placed so close together that great care is necessary in walking among them to avoid trampling upon them. In the islet of Vidöe, a valuable breeding-ground near Reikiavik, the capital of Iceland, almost every little hollow place between the rocks is occupied by the nests of these fowls; they readily take possession of holes cut for them in rows in the sloping side of a hill; nay, garden-walls and the interiors of buildings are in like manner occupied. In other situations, the birds do not shew quite the same

amount of confidence in man.

The E. is sometimes called ST CUTHBERT'S DUCK, from a rock called St Cuthbert's Isle, one of the Fern Islands. It seems probable that, with due care, the number of the eiders at the Fern Islands, and some of the Scottish islands, might be greatly increased, and their down yield a considerable revenue, but at present their eggs are indiscriminately taken with those of other sea-birds, and no protection is extended to them. The eggs are remarkably fine. The flesh of the birds, also, is not unpleasant, and is said to become of superior excellence when they are partially domesticated, and when farinaceous food is mixed in considerable quantity with their natural diet of marine molluscs, crustaceans, &c. The complete domestication of the E. has been successfully attempted, where access could be obtained to the sea. About half a pound of eider-down is said to be annually obtained from each nest, but this is reduced by cleaning to a quarter of a pound. The elasticity of the down is such that three-quarters of an ounce of it will fill a large hat, although two or three pounds of it may be pressed into a ball and held in the hand. Its extensive use, particularly in Germany and other parts of the continent of Europe, for stuffing the bed-coverings, which there usually supply the place of blankets, &c., is well known. The down taken from birds which have been killed is inferior in quality to that obtained from the nests. The latter is known in commerce as live down, the former as dead down.

The KING EIDER, or KING DUCK (S. spectabilis), also yields no inconsiderable part of the eider-down of commerce, especially of that which is brought from the Danish settlements in Greenland. This bird belongs to still higher northern latitudes than the common eider. On some parts of the coasts of Greenland, on those of Spitzbergen, Nova Zembla, the North Georgian islands, &c., it occurs in great numbers. A few breed in Iceland and the Faröe Islands. In Britain, the bird is a rare visitant. It is of about the same size as the common eider. The female is very similar to the female of that species;

of the back.

Skins of king ducks are made into winter garments by the inhabitants of Siberia and Kamtchatka.

to the Spanish dollar, as being divided into eight EIGHT, PIECE OF, a name once popularly given reals.

EIGHT-FOIL, used in Heraldry to signify a grass having eight leaves, as the trefoil has three. According to Sylvanus Morgan, it may be used as the difference of the ninth branch of a family.

EIK, in the legal phraseology of Scotland, is an addition made to a document for the purpose of meeting circumstances which have subsequently arisen. Thus, a reversion being a deed granted by a borrower, who reserves to himself the right of redeeming the land which he has conveyed in security to the lender (see WADSET), an eik to a reversion is a subsequent deed by the reverser acknowledging the receipt of a further sum, and declaring that the property shall not be redeemable until repayment of the additional loan. In like manner, an eik to a confirmation or testament is an addition to the inventory made up by an executor at his confirmation, in consequence of additional effects belonging to the deceased having been discovered. Where the executor appears to have fraudulently omitted or undervalued any effects belonging to the deceased, any creditor or person interested may apply to the commissary to be confirmed executor with reference to these additional effects, ad omissa vel male appretiata.

EI'KON BASI'LIKÉ, a work presumed to have been written by Charles I. during his confinement, but now more correctly imputed to another writer. The following are the explanations of M. Guizot on the subject, in his History of Oliver Cromwell and the English Commonwealth. It is to the Eikon Basilike that Charles I. is principally indebted for the name of the Royal Martyr. The work is not by him; external testimony and internal evidence both combine to remove all doubt on the matter. Dr Gauden, Bishop, first of Exeter and afterwards of Worcester, under the reign of Charles II., was its real author; but the manuscript had probably been perused and approved, perhaps even corrected, by Charles himself during his residence in the Isle of Wight. In any case, it was the real expression and true portraiture of his position, character, and mind, as they had been formed by misfortune; it is remarkable for an elevation of thought which is at once natural and strained; a constant mingling of