ii2 BIRD-HUNTING 



on the top of an old stump of a dead tree, at no 

 height, but exceedingly rotten and shaky. Just as 

 I reached the nest it gave a loud crack, and all the 

 bystanders shouted out that it was going to fall. 

 However, as I was there, and as it was the first 

 Stork's nest I had ever been able to get at without 

 offending the owners, I stuck to it and burrowed 

 through the bottom of the nest with one hand, it 

 being- impossible to get at it in any other way. I 

 could feel four eggs, which I took. They were 

 white and smooth, and smaller than I had expected, 

 judging from the size of the birds. I had been 

 careful before going up to ascertain if I could take 

 the eggs without upsetting the superstitions or 

 prejudices of the people. There were dozens of 

 Tree Sparrows in the outside sticks and underneath 

 the nest of the Storks. I wished afterwards I had 

 taken some of their eggs, but at the time I was too 

 anxious to reach firm ground safely to bother about 

 them. I was surprised to see that the old Stork 

 did not desert the nest, but came back very 

 soon afterwards and went on sitting as though 

 nothing had happened. I concluded that I must 

 have missed an egg, or perhaps two, and as I heard 

 later that they had brought off a brood all right, 

 this was probably the case, or else they laid again. 



It is a most difficult thing to take Storks' eggs. 

 They are exceedingly common, and I have seen 



