wings spread and one claw extended, as though they were fighting. Respectant, the term used for depicting domestic or game animals shown facing each other, is not used because eagles are aggressive predators. Eagles addorsed When two eagles are shown back-to-back and facing the edges of the field the term used is addorsed / endorsed or adossés ("back-to-back"). Variants Eaglet This term is used when three or more Eagles are shown on a field. They represent immature eagles. Alerion Originally the term erne or alerion in early heraldry referred to a regular eagle. Later heralds used the term alerion to depict baby eagles. To differentiate them from mature eagles, alerions were shown as an eagle displayed inverted without a beak or claws (disarmed). To difference it from a decapitate (headless) eagle, the alerion has a bulb-shaped head with an eye staring towards the dexter (right-hand side) of the field. This was later simplified in modern heraldry as an abstract winged oval. An example is the arms of the Duchy of Lorraine (Or, on a Bend Gules, 3 Alerions Abaisé Argent). It supposedly had been inspired by the assumed arms of crusader Geoffrey de Bouillon, who supposedly killed three white eaglets with a bow and arrow when out hunting. It is far more likely to be canting arms that are a pun based on the similarities of "Lorraine" and "erne". Imperial Eagle The Aquila was the eagle standard of a Roman legion, carried by a special grade legionary known as an Aquilifer, from the second consulship of Gaius Marius (104 BC) used as the only legionary standard. It was made of silver, or bronze, with outstretched wings. The eagle was not immediately retained as a symbol of the Roman Empire in general in the early medieval period. Neither the early Byzantine emperors nor the Carolingians used the eagle in their coins or seals. It appears that the eagle is only revived as a symbol of Roman imperial power in the high medieval period, being featured on the sceptres of the Ottonians in the late 10th century, and the double-headed eagle gradually appearing association with the Komnenos dynasty in the 11th and 12th centuries. Holy Roman Empire The eagle is used as an emblem by the Holy Roman Emperors from at least the time of Otto III (late 10th century), in the form of the "eagle-sceptre". Frederick Barbarossa ( 1155–90) is reported