FOURTH DAY. 61 



had not seen us it would return ; and \ve were not wrong, for 

 after a few minutes the female which had just been missed 

 separated itself from the other two birds, and flying straight 

 towards the nest settled on the withered top of a black poplar 

 about sixty yards from our ambush. Though the distance 

 was rather great, I trusted to my good gun and fired ; but 

 just as the shot left the barrel the eagle saw us and dropped 

 down among the branches of the tall tree, so that the charge 

 passed some yards behind the bird, and the pellets only rattled 

 against the bough on which it had been sitting. 



Depressed by the many mishaps I had to-day encountered, 

 first at the owl's nest, and now with this pair of Sea-Eagles, 

 I wanted to leave the place, but Hodek begged me to wait a 

 little longer, and we spent another perfectly blank half-hour, 

 while the eagles circled round the wood and its immediate 

 neighbourhood, unceasingly uttering their shrill cries of alarm 

 and perpetually examining our hiding-place, for they had at 

 last discovered the danger, and there was no longer the slightest 

 chance of their coming near us for the next few hours. 



Hodek now advised me to return to the " csikeln " and to 

 make a fresh visit to the Eagle-Owl's nest ; so I left this 

 place much disheartened and abashed by my many failures. 

 The wearisome way through the thick underwood back to the 

 first eagle's nest now seemed doubly long and disagreeable, 

 and on our trying to curtail it by a short cut to the bank, we 

 went quite astray, and it was not until we had searched about 

 for some time that we reached the first nest, and thence got 

 back to our " csikeln," where I was ashamed at being obliged 

 to tell what had happened to our men, who, having heard so 

 many shots, had expected to see us return with several 

 eagles. 



Quickly getting into our crafts, we went back along the 

 route by which we had so lately come ; but it was in a dif- 

 ferent frame of mind from that of this morning that we pene- 



