216 BIRD-HUNTING 



have been second clutches. This is just what we ex- 

 pected, for in May we found young birds almost as 

 big as their parents ; and others of all ages and sizes. 

 Having picked out some good clutches of eggs, the 

 cleanest we could find in the hope of their being less 

 incubated than the others, we returned to our camp 

 to find everything fixed up comfortably. The men 

 had made for themselves a high wind-screen of 

 pine branches, and built an enormous fire for cooking 

 and to keep themselves warm during the night. To 

 keep the fire going they had piled up a great stack 

 of resinous pine-boughs as big as a haystack. 



Presently Marco served us up a most luxurious 

 dinner. The first course consisted of roast leg of 

 lamb cooked to perfection, followed by tinned apri- 

 cots, after which came Turkish coffee and cigarettes. 

 The coffee, I learnt, was made by one of our su- 

 warries, whose only luggage for four days consisted 

 of an old blanket, a coffee-mill, and a bag of roasted 

 coffee berries. It was exquisite. After such a 

 dinner we felt at peace with all mankind, and 

 enjoyed a short rest before turning in. It was 

 bitterly cold at night in spite of the big fire outside, 

 everything being frozen in the morning, much ice 

 forming on all the puddles. But in spite of the cold 

 the men elected not to put up my double-roofed tent, 

 merely using it as a comprehensive blanket where- 

 with to cover themselves as they lay round their fire 



