Eagles are of such wide and constant occurrence in heraldry that we cannot attempt to do justice to them here. A single eagle is borne by the Earls of Dalhousie and Southesk, and by seven families of Bedingfield. A double-headed eagle was rather a favourite charge, and coats of arms displaying as many as six eagles are very commonly met with. But an eagle blazoned "close" is a rare charge.[5] Parts of an eagle, such as head, wings, talons, and legs often appear in armorial bearings as separate charges. Ostrich feathers, by the way, are also introduced into heraldry, but the ostrich itself is of very seldom occurrence.[6] Its introduction into heraldry, dates from the time of the Crusaders, when Europeans first saw the bird. An ostrich is usually represented with a horseshoe in its mouth, because it was a popular idea that an ostrich could digest iron.[7] In Sir Titus Salt's arms we find a demi-ostrich holding a horseshoe in its beak. Lord Churston's shield is supported on the right by an ostrich with a horseshoe in its beak, as is Lord Carysfort's, but _his_ ostrich is represented with a key in its beak. [Footnote 5: The eagle was sometimes called "alerion" by the early heralds and when blazoned as such was usually represented with neither legs nor beak.] [Footnote 6: One Jervis, the principal founder of Exbridge, in Devon, bore six ostrich feathers, and in the heraldry of to-day they are occasionally met with as charges. The Fetherstons bear three ostrich feathers on their shield, and the Earl of Devon has seven ostrich feathers in his crest. We are all familiar with the Prince of Wales's plumes, but to go farther back into history, we find that a plume of ostrich feathers was often used by King Stephen as his badge, with the motto of his own making: "_Vi nulla invertitur ordo_"--"No force alters their fashion"--in allusion to the "fold fall of the feather," which was neither shaken nor disordered by the wind, and therefore symbolized the condition of well-ordered kings and kingdoms. In bygone times, we are told, "some doubted whether an ostrich should be reckoned as a beast or a fowl"!] [Footnote 7: "I'll make thee eat iron like an ostrich." _King Henry VI._ ] [Illustration: FIG. 44.]