Circle of stars all EU leaders as the official emblem of the European Communities, and in 1993 inherited by the successor organisation, the European Union. All European institutions now use an emblem of their own. The Zodiac is an ancient "circle of stars" where some stars are symbolically combined into 12 Star signs also known as constellations. The etymology of the term Zodiac comes from the Latin zōdiacus, from the Greek ζῳδιακός [κύκλος], meaning "[circle] of animals", derived from ζῴδιον, the diminutive of ζῷον "animal". The Crown of Immortality is a separate and earlier motif (and metaphor) which also uses a circle of
Letter-winged kite under its current binomial name "Elanus scriptus". The specific epithet is from the Latin word "scriptum" meaning "written" or "marked". Charles Sturt wrote of seeing them on his travels in his 1849 book "Narrative of an expedition into Central Australia". The letter-winged kite is monotypic; no subspecies are recognized, nor is there any recorded geographic variation. "Letter-winged kite" has been designated the official name by the International Ornithologists' Union (IOC). In Central Australia, southwest of Alice Springs, the Pitjantjatjara term for the letter-winged kite is "nyanyitjira". It has been incorrectly called white-breasted sparrowhawk. Molecular evidence shows that the letter-winged kite