FIFTEEN DAYS ON THE DANUBE. 
J 
oD 
I therefore drove down a broad avenue, towards the 
nest alluded to, in a country cart, accompanied by the 
forester. 
After a few minutes we stopped, and continued our way on 
foot by a cross ride. When we had gone a few hundred 
yards the forester begged me to enter the wood on my right 
with my gun ready ; and under the skilful direction of my 
guide I was cautiously creeping through the luxuriant foliage 
of this young cover, when I suddenly saw the heavy form of 
a Short-toed Eagle on the top of a dead tree. 
The beautifully marked bird of prey, with its dazzling 
white breast, coffee-brown back, and thick Buzzard-like head 
armed with a powerful beak, was at that moment diligently 
occupied in preening its feathers, and had not observed us, but 
was looking carelessly about. I leant against a young oak, 
and had time enough to get a thorough impression of the sin- 
gular appearance of this highly interesting raptorial bird. At 
the very first sight it strikes the observer as peculiar ; for 
there is something quite distinctive in its appearance, which 
neither reminds one of the larger nor of the smaller Eagles, 
but much more of the Buzzards and even somewhat of the 
Owls. It does not, however, resemble these latter groups of 
raptorial birds in so decided a manner as to admit of a precise 
definition of their common characteristics. Its size is the 
principal reason why the Short-toed Hagle seems such a new 
and strange sort of type; for it cannot possibly remind one 
of our larger eagles, such as the Rock, Golden, Imperial, or 
Sea ; and it is equally unlike the Osprey, Spotted and Pygmy 
Hagles, or the Buzzard, Harriers, Goshawk, and the large 
Falcons. It strikes one as much bigger and more powerful 
than these latter birds, and as occupying a perfectly iso- 
lated position in the European fauna—a fact demanding the 
thorough investigation of ornithologists. 
IT approached the nest with great care, intending to study 
the minutest details of the movements and character of this 
