296 BIRD-HUNTING 



though I thought she had fallen round the corner of 

 the hill, both of my companions declared she had 

 flown right away. I couldn't make it out, for I 

 knew the aim had been right, and that I had been 

 perfectly steady ; and I felt that it was impossible I 

 had missed her. There was a chance that the bullet 

 had struck the branch which stuck up in front of 

 her, but I could see no mark on examining it with 

 my glass. There were two much-incubated eggs in 

 this nest. 



Late that night we heard that a boy had found 

 this Eaele still alive, and had killed her with a stick 

 and left her. I was very disgusted, and would far 

 sooner have missed her altogether than have killed 

 her for nothing like this, for we were leaving early 

 the next morning, and the distance was too far to 

 send and fetch her in. 



All this high ground was full of people with their 

 flocks and herds, who had been flooded out of the 

 Balta, the low, swampy country surrounding and 

 between the various arms and channels of the Balta, 

 by the inundations. The valley in which we had 

 found the Imperial Eagle was traversed in every 

 direction by herdsmen. Flocks of sheep were 

 grazing on the bare hillsides, where hardly a blade 

 of grass was visible ; and their owners were camping 

 out in rude conical shelters of reeds until the fall of 

 the water should allow them to return from whence 



