THROUGH WILD EUROPE 291 



and fairly pushed the rifle into my hands, saying, 

 1 Tirez — tirez.' I tried to explain that it would be 

 very easy to photograph it first and to shoot it after- 

 wards ; but my French did not come very fluently, 

 and I was afraid that if I didn't shoot he would, 

 so very reluctantly I took aim and pulled the 

 trigger. A tremendous crash followed as the great 

 bird collapsed and fell from the summit of the tree 

 through the branches to the ground. They all 

 patted me on the back and congratulated me on 

 the shot ; but I felt very savage at not having been 

 able to get the photograph. For I remembered 

 Prince Rudolfs account of how the Black Vultures 

 he had met with had come back to the nest after 

 having been repeatedly fired at, and I felt that a 

 great mistake had been made, and that in all 

 probability I should never have such another chance 

 again. 1 



To save carrying such a weight all the way back 

 we skinned her on the spot, for it proved to be a 

 female. (The length from beak to tail was forty-two 

 inches ; iris hazel, cere blue, beak dark-brown, feet 

 bluish- white, claws black.) We found that it had 

 been shot before, for there were eight large pellets 

 of lead under the skin. 



There was one egg, very handsomely freckled 

 all over with reddish-brown spots, which proved to 

 1 This foreboding proved to be too true. 



