36 BIRD-HUNTING 



an attempt to reach the spot. The guide went first 

 to reconnoitre and was soon lost to sight ; but after 

 a few minutes we could hear his hail and see his 

 head over a rock corner. Shouting out that there 

 were eggs, he directed us to make the best of our 

 way down to where he was. Our path ran down- 

 wards in a slanting direction. The rock was com- 

 posed of titanic boulders, many of them as big as a 

 room in an ordinary house ; and from one to another 

 of these we had to drop or make our way as best 

 we could. Sometimes we were obliged to slide 

 down a short incline, only to be brought up by the 

 next obstacle ; but after a rough scramble all four of 

 us found ourselves actually standing in the Griffon's 

 nest. 



I had been a little hampered by the heavy camera- 

 case on my back and the strapped-up tripod carried 

 in my hand, and was not sorry to find myself at last, 

 with my photographic equipment uninjured, in this 

 great nest, from which we enjoyed a magnificent view. 



Looking straight down under our feet we could 

 see, 1,000 feet below us, a tiny patch of yellow 

 sand on which the little waves were lazily rolling ; 

 while far away to the horizon the sea shimmered 

 and shone in the glorious sunshine, with opalescent 

 tints of blue, green, and purple, until lost in the blue 

 sky above. 



In the nest, which was very large and well made 



