FIRST DAY. 3 



investigation as I possibly could, and had enjoyed the 

 pleasure of passing almost every afternoon in his society. 

 We had a great deal of talk about the eagles, especially 

 of the difficulties attendant on their study and pursuit, and 

 of their greatly decreasing numbers. 



At this very time Hodek, who had also assisted us in 

 procuring skins of the " Stein " Eagle, had just received 

 his first and very favourable report from the districts of the 

 Lower Danube. So, again, there arose the exciting question 

 of whether I could or could not manage to visit those 

 localities down the river where the eagles and the great 

 vultures nest, and where so many splendid sporting adven- 

 tures might be expected. 



The answer was not difficult; for I had only to look at 

 Brehm, with his broad shoulders and face tanned by exposure 

 a man who shunned neither harassing mental desk-work 

 nor the troubles and fatigues of natural-history studies and 

 explorations in the most widely separated parts of the world. 

 Such a favourable opportunity of making an expedition 

 of this sort, with such a companion, was quite enough to 

 decide me ; while there was, moreover, another ornithologist 

 staying in Vienna Eugen von Homeyer, universally known 

 among scientific men as the President of the Ornithological 

 Society of Berlin. 



Homeyer, who was a celebrated authority on eagles, had 

 long been trying to solve the problem of the " Stein " and 

 Golden Eagles, and had been invited by Brehm to Vienna to 

 help in working out the materials. He too was attracted by 

 the idea of a trip to those splendid hunting-grounds, and 

 resolved to accompany us. 



An excursion which we made a few days before Easter 

 to the "auw alder" * of the Danube, near Vienna, in order 



* Both "alien" and "auwalder" are indifferently used in the text to 

 denote the marshy low-lying woods of the Danube. 



B2 



