from Mesolonghi and Southern Italia. 293 



on the bridge in all the pride of tasseled fez and snowy fastanclla. 

 The frequent explosions in the town to-day proclaim it one of 

 the fetes of the Greek Church. To-night and to-morrow they 

 will take their fill of fish, after which they are allowed to make 

 themselves sick on bad butter, made up into various cakes, and 

 abominations such as no other country could produce, and then 

 no more animal food (shellfish and roe excepted) till Easter. But 

 the Eagles are indifferent to all this. Their eyes doubtless are 

 chiefly fixed on the two great packs of ducks now resting so 

 quietly on either side of the long bridge, and over the waters 

 and reedy shores of the upper lake, which is their own especial 

 beat. If this is not enough, they overlook the whole western 

 ann of the great lagoon of Mesolonghi, the Pelican Islands, and 

 the immense and varied delta of the Acheloiis, with its swamps, 

 its pastures, and its corn-fields, — broken in front by the olive- 

 covered hill of Katza, abounding in pigeons, and beyond the 

 river by the eminences which contain the modern llatokki and 

 the ruins of (Enia. After being lowered to a level with the nest, 

 the only difficulty was to spring across the chasm separating 

 the platform on which it rested from the cliff beneath the wild 

 olive-tree. This done, I was in possession, and able to make a 

 closer inspection of the nest itself, which consisted principally of 

 branches of wild olive, terebinth, and thorn, arranged according 

 to their size. There was no lining of wool, as is usual in 

 Eagles^ nests, but the eggs lay on a thin layer of olive-leaves. 

 The eggs themselves, which I retain in my collection, are slightly 

 unequal in size. The larger is of a smooth texture and bluish- 

 white ground-colour, very sparingly marked with rust-coloured 

 spots and minute dottings. The smaller one is of a rougher 

 texture, in colour a dirty white, and without any distinct mark- 

 ings : it appears to have been laid the last. Further up the 

 cave is a stone, on which the bird not occupied in incubating 

 the eggs was evidently wont to sit and watch its mate. There 

 were no bones or other remains indicating the nature of their 

 food, though I fancy hares and partridges [Caccabis saxatilis) 

 form no small portion of it. On our return down the mountain, 

 Dr. Kriiper and myself had a good view of the pair. The fal- 

 coninc character of their flight was very obvious as they dashed 



