20 FIFTEEN DAYS ON THE DANUBE. 



since December of the past year, when I had killed my last 

 " Stein " Eagle, I had not seen a single bird of this kind in 

 the open, but only in the Zoological Gardens of London, 

 Dublin, and Berlin, where I made pilgrimages, out of the 

 suffocating foggy town air, to see these noble creatures, and 

 to refresh myself after the turmoil of the world by recalling 

 the happiest of my sporting reminiscences. 



The long-suffering reader must not be too indignant at 

 such romantic digressions, for such dangers may always be 

 expected when I touch on the subject of the pursuit of eagles. 

 How willingly would I even then have ignored the whole 

 plan of our journey, and have quietly waited under the 

 herons' nests to see whether the eagle would not come back, 

 to make a closer inspection of their contents, but a glance at 

 my watch compelled me to return to the rest of the party. 



We now took the slain Cormorants with us and walked 

 quickly homewards. The clouds had cleared off again, and 

 the woods, refreshed by the rain, were still more splendidly 

 green and fragrant, while the birds were warbling their 

 songs, and many species flew past, which had to be entered 

 in our note-books. We also heard the clear call of the 

 Pheasant sounding among the bushes, and a poor Wryneck 

 fell a victim to Homeyer's zeal in the interests of science. 

 As we were returning to the heronry we found Brelim 

 leaning against a tree. He had just finished his observations, 

 filled many blank pages in his note-book, and had also brought 

 with him some specimens for measuring and skinning. 

 While 'walking through the heronry with our guns at the 

 ready, a Night-Heron suddenly rose in front of me, and a 

 lucky shot brought it down. On nearing the place where 

 our boat lay by the bank, my brother-in-law and I paid 

 another visit to the kite's nest ; but again its churlish pro- 

 prietor quitted it too soon, and circled over the Danube in a 

 great state of alarm. I wanted to have a close look at the 



