MORE TUR HUNTING 201 



endless quantities of web necessary for such prodigious 

 spans. He evidently imagined that the spider silk 

 was coiled up in the creature, like the Atlantic Cable on 

 the Great Eastern. 



Very few small birds lived in the valleys at this 

 altitude. Here and there in a dried watercourse the 

 shrike preyed on lizards. His larder was always full, 

 and the carcasses of toads, beetles, crickets, and large 

 flies were impaled on the brambles around. 



Everywhere a low plant grew in rocky interstices, and 

 from its root the Lesghians decoct a sort of bitter tea. 

 Cecily decided that she would introduce the small 

 plant into her far-distant garden, and burdened her 

 lily-white steed with a basketful of specimens, which 

 died the death daily until all had disappeared. 



One day as we looked over a bold scarped precipice 

 we noticed the roosting place of a colony of Cinereous 

 vultures. We counted four old birds and four young 

 ones. They were five hundred feet or so below us, but, 

 by firing into the air, we startled them into flight. The 

 whole eight swept away in great curves, wheeling, 

 circling, ascending, descending, in effortless grace with 

 scarcely a pinion beat. I count it as one of the majestic 

 wonders of the world to see the Vulturidae a- wing. I 

 could watch them for hours. 



Later in the week Cecily bagged a specimen, with 

 the intention of curing it. We were out after part- 

 ridge for the pot when suddenly a vulture, hanging 

 low over some carrion rotting in a ravine, presented 

 more than a sporting chance. 



Our fallen trophy was only reached after the steepest 



