FOURTH DAY, 55 
look suggestive of all the old hunting-tales, the ‘“* Walpurgis- 
nacht” and long by-gone days, and has perhaps suffered more 
from the inroads of civilization than even the Eagle, for it 
demands perfect quiet, and vast wildernesses are its true home. 
There I sat in my “esikel”” with my empty gun, the pic- 
ture of misery ; but Hodek assured me that when the Hagle- 
Owl is clean missed, it soon comes back to its nest, and that 
even when it is wounded, but is still strong enough to drag 
itself back to its retreat, it does so that it may die in its own 
dwelling, surrounded by its belongings, he having seen instances 
of both cases in the course of his many years’ experience. 
For this ray of hope I was very thankful, and though I did 
not set much faith on the result, I determined to return to the 
nest in a few hours. As we were leaving the place, in de- 
pressed spirits, a beautiful Osprey flew over us and settled on 
a high black poplar, whose dead top was decorated with an 
old abandoned Sea-Hagle’s nest. Ducks were getting up 
everywhere among the stems of the trees, and a lively bustle 
was going on amongst the crowd of Moorhens. Our object 
now was to get out of this wood as quickly as we could, in 
order to pay a visit to a Sea-Hagle, so we directed that the 
boat, which had remained by the open water, should be 
hidden in the thickets and kept in waiting for us. 
We then advanced in an opposite direction through another 
flooded thicket, and soon reached an open arm of the river 
with dense copses running along its right bank and on its left 
a high wood, most of which was under water. 
After paddling about a quarter of an hour, Hodek announced 
that we must be close to the first eagle’s nest, so we put into 
the left bank at a place where most of the high wood was free 
of water, and entered a grove composed of silver poplars, black 
poplars, and a few oaks, where there was little undergrowth 
and but few pools, a state of matters which much facilitated 
our progress. 
