Scrub and Wood. 41 



(where wild boars are common, the crash of a stag, as it 

 jumps lip within a yard of one, is rather disconcerting), 

 when 1 came upon a clump of cork trees. I crept 

 cautiously up to them. The first tree contained nothing, 

 but near the top of the second there sat a great griffon 

 vulture. I coveted his skin, although I had no wish to 

 skin him myself, as those who know what a griffon vulture 

 is will understand. However, I fired, and down fell a 

 very mountain of flesh and feathers. He was not dead, 

 so I put a charge of small shot into his head, at which he 

 sank down, and apparently died. But it is even easier to 

 kill a cat than a big vulture. I was sitting down with my 

 back to the vulture, eating lunch, and considering how 

 I could carry him home, when I heard a great rustling, 

 and there was my "dead" bird hobbling off, drooping 

 its broken wing. I leisurely picked up my things and 

 was proceeding to follow the vulture, when it disappeared 

 into the thickest part of the scrub. It seems incredible 

 that one could lose a badly wounded bird as large as 

 a turkty in scrub however thick. Nevertheless I did 

 lose that bird, and was never able to find it again, 

 notwithstanding many hours of diligent searching. My 

 search, it is true, was somewhat distracted, firstly, by 

 a large eyed lizard,* about two feet long, which was 

 sunning itself on a little patch of bare sand, from which 

 it made off on my approach with an ungainly gallop, like 

 a young crocodile. Then I heard a harsh noise going on 

 behind me. I turned and saw a serpent-eaglef — a smallish 

 light- coloured eagle — hovering over a tree from which 

 sounded a shrill "tic-tic-tic." Suddenly it closed its 

 wings and went down into the tree like a stone. Presently 



* Lacerta occellata. f Circaetus galHcus. 



