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Fabulous Stones, Concretions and Fossils: Bausch

Bausch enumerates and rejects a number of explanations to account for the supposed presence of the aetites in the nests of eagles. One theory was that these stones served to give stability to the nest, and enabled it better to resist the assaults of the wind; others asserted that the coolness of the stones lowered the unduly high temperature of the eggs and of the parent bird's body; others again were inclined to attribute to them a mysterious formative and vivifying power exerted on the eggs, or else a talismanic power protecting these from injury. While rejecting all these notions, as we have stated, and indeed denying the truth of the assertion that such stones were ever found in eagles' nests, Bausch cites the authority of St. Jerome, in his commentary on Isaiah, chap. Ixvi, that the amethyst had been found with the young of the eagle, being placed with them in the nest to protect them from venomous creatures.