SECOND DAY. 21 



nest, so walked up to the steep crumbling bank, where I 

 heard a splashing in the water, and, quickly turning round, 

 saw a Cormorant flying out just below me. I gave it both 

 barrels, but the shot, being rather too light for its thick green 

 mail of feathers, was not immediately fatal, and not until it 

 had reached the middle of the stream did the hard-hit bird 

 take a sweep round, and then fall like a stone into the water, 

 making it spurt up, and was forthwith borne down stream by 

 the light wavelets, in quite a poetic fashion. I now hastened 

 to join my brother-in-law, and we rowed back in the boat 

 together, the other sportsmen following along the footpath 

 more slowly. 



While waiting for them we amused ourselves by frightening 

 the Rooks and Hooded Crows out of their nests, and by killing 

 a specimen of each species, and on their arrival loaded the 

 boat with our spoil, and took leave of the exceedingly kind 

 proprietor of the island. 



We then pushed off from the bank, and soon gained the 

 deck of our steamer. The anchor was weighed, and we set 

 off again down stream on our way to fresh achievements. 



Thanks to the kindly courtesy of Count Zichy, our first 

 shooting excursion had turned out a success, for we had made 

 a pretty good bag, and were now able to describe a beautiful 

 heronry, and a colony of Cormorants, among the scenes of 

 our journey. 



At first we followed the bank of the island, the herons 

 circling high above the steamer, seemingly desirous of 

 satisfying themselves that the troublesome strangers had 

 really quitted their domains. 



Soon after leaving Adony behind us, we passed some very 

 small thickly-wooded islands, then the " auen " vanished from 

 both sides of the river, and another monotonous district lay 

 spread before us. High crumbling banks alternating with 

 low flat shores, where the river lost itself as it were in mea- 



