THROUGH WILD EUROPE 217 



and I dare say they found it warmer. I slept com- 

 fortably enough in my bag ; but B complained 



of the cold, and the next night used his heavy fur- 

 coat as a counterpane. But the coldest part of all 

 was the wash in the open in the morning, stripped to 

 the waist with a bitter wind blowing enough to cut 

 the flesh off one's bones. Honestly I should have 

 preferred my ablutions inside ; but as the Baron 

 started outside I followed suit, as it would never 

 have done for an Englishman to funk cold water. 

 The second morning, however, he was less exacting, 

 somewhat to my relief. As for our men, I don't 

 suppose they washed at all. 



The eggs which we had taken the previous day 

 proved to be a tough job. They were hard sat on, 

 so much so that I spent the whole day over them, 



while B went off for some more and to shoot a 



Pelican or two for me. On his return with a few 

 eggs and a splendid adult male Pelecanus crispus, we 

 both set to work, one at each side of the india-rubber 

 basin, alternately blowing for all we were worth 

 and hauling out young Pelicans with scissors and 

 hooked wires. It was a most unpleasant proceeding 

 snipping them into pieces inside the eggs with fine- 

 pointed scissors, and then hunting and feeling for 

 the fragments, and dragging them very cautiously 

 for fear of bursting open the shells, cutting off the 

 pieces outside when we came to a bit of leg or a 



