256 BIRD-HUNTING 



paid a flying visit to the locality of last year. 

 Meeting the jovial ' capitan ' of the little frontier 

 village, he invited me to ride back with him. I did 

 so, returning to Dulcigno the next day. 



Unfortunately, there was so much water that we 

 couldn't reach the reed-bed in which I found them 

 nesting last year. I had three or four shots at 

 Pelicans fishing on the river bar, but at very long 

 range. I had to put up the 400-yard sight to reach 

 them, and failed to secure one. We saw the first 

 Golden Oriole on our way back, and some Pratin- 

 coles, of which we got one, shot by Nikola, who had 

 walked over when he heard I was going there — I 

 believe in order to see that I didn't get into any 

 danger. He is now a gens darme employed by the 

 Customs. I bought at this place some Turkish 

 tobacco of the finest quality, at the rate of something 

 under one shilling per pound. 



On the 25th of April I paid a final visit to the 

 Great White Herons, and took six more clutches of 

 eggs ; leaving many nests untouched which held 

 only one or two eggs. I tried the automatic camera 

 at these nests, and it had gone off when I returned, 

 but I found no bird on the plate when developed. 

 Probably the wind had moved the reeds to which the 

 thread stretched across the nest had been attached. 

 All automatic devices are necessarily very uncertain 

 in their action, unfortunately. I should have liked 



