3 o BIRD-HUNTING 



comparatively easy to climb from the top, even 

 without a rope. 



While we were watching with interest the Griffons 

 in their mountain home, a smaller bird, with whitish 

 breast, appeared and settled on a dead tree which 

 projected near the top, and we recognized the noble 

 form of a Bonelli's Eagle. Presently it left its perch 

 and sailed round in front of the great crag. But, 

 though so much smaller, it appeared to disdain the 

 too close propinquity of its larger but more ignoble 

 neighbours ; for, on one of the Griffons venturing 

 too near, it made a most magnificent ' stoop ' and 

 struck the Vulture with such force that the great 

 bird fairly toppled over, and fell several feet in the 

 air before it could recover itself. 



It was a splendid example of natural falconry on 

 a large scale, and reminded us at once of the 

 antagonism and fierce conflicts between the Eagles 

 and the Cinereous Vultures in the forests of Slavonia, 

 so graphically described by the late Crown Prince 

 Rudolf of Austria in his book Sport and Ornithology. 



A little to the right of this Griffonry was a gap 

 through which flowed a small, rocky stream, and on 

 the other side of this stream the rocks were much 

 lower. Here, fortunately, we found a Griffon quietly 

 sitting in her nest in a big hole by the side of a 

 half-grown young bird. After a little manoeuvring 

 by climbing up an adjacent hillside so as to clear 



