Notes, Notings, and Common Refrains

So -- just now, for want of something to read, I went back to that Griffin / Gryphon / Grype page I linked to, earlier: http://www.theoi.com/Thaumasios/Grypes.html

The neat thing about the pages at theoi.com is that most of the content is compiled of translated literature from the period. And that's how I found this passage, which is (at this moment, at least) my favorite description of gryphons as animals (Aelian, On Animals -- Second Century C.E., Greek):

(Quote)
I have heard that the Indian animal the Grupa (Gryphon) is a quadraped like a lion; that it has claws of enormous strength and that they resemble those of a lion. Men commonly report that it is winged and that the feathers along its back are black, and those on its front are red, while the actual wings are neither but are white. And Ktesias (Ctesias) records that its neck is variegated with feathers of a dark blue; that it has a beak like an eagle's, and a head too, just as artists portray it in pictures and sculpture. Its eyes, he says, are like fire.
(Unquote)

Ooh -- "eyes like fire" -- could that be feline (i.e. lions') "eye shine"?

I mean: Dude! That level of detail is worthy of a description by John James Audubon...

(Other sources on that page say gryphons are native to the northern region of Europe, and are the size of wolves... could there be several species of gryphon?)