SEVENTH DAY, 121 
upward jerk from the branch and flew away down the valley, 
making a great deal of noise and vanishing among the trees, 
for it took but little notice of the two shots which I let drive 
at it, though a few feathers fell, and the Slavonian woodman 
thought that it was hard hit in the side. I waited vainly for 
another half-hour, and was quite disheartened by this mishap ; 
for I had now bungled both the pairs of vultures which had 
been shown to me, and I did not know whether I should have 
any further chance of killing one to-day. However, the great 
good fortune which always favours me out shooting helped 
me over the difficulty later on in the afternoon. 
While sitting at the first nest I had noticed that a young 
“Stein”? Eagle, and often also a young Sea-Hagle, kept 
stooping at a certain heavily foliaged oak in the middle of a 
beech wood; and as the forester had already told me that the 
eagles detested the vultures, and were in the habit of tor- 
menting them at every opportunity, I had a lucky inspiration, 
and resolved to make a final effort and go to the place at which 
I had seen the eagles so constantly swooping. The Servian 
woodman, who had noted this even before I did, had gone 
off to the spot without saying anything, and now came back 
with the news that he had, from a distance, seen a light- 
coloured head projecting from the nest, and thought that it 
must be that of an eagle; but the ornithological knowledge 
of all these people heing so very defective, my hopes of again 
encountering a vulture revived, and I hurried off to the 
place along a spur of the mountain-ridge. On reaching an 
open spot, where I had a wonderful view, I saw in the 
distance seven Cinereous Vultures rise into the air and fly 
one after another straight towards the place where we were 
standing. 
I made ready to shoot without concealing myself, and as 
the first vulture passed over my head within twenty to 
twenty-five yards I fired both barrels, and certainly hit it, 
