78 FIFTEEN DAYS ON THE DANUBE. 



name, for it is no eagle ; and I quite agree with my 

 friend Brehm that, despite all the earlier naturalists, it 

 must be separated from the eagle group, and it seems to 

 me that the name of " Snake-Buzzard," applied to it by 

 him, is far more correct. 



The patient reader will, with perfect justice, smile at my 

 here entering the lists against the first of all ornithologists ; 

 but why not try ? 



My idea is that one should not be in such a hurry to place 

 the " Schlangen Alder "* (I retain the name in this work, 

 because it is the only one universally known) in the Buzzard 

 group as Brehm is ; and I think that it would be much more 

 to the point to separate it from the Buzzards as well as from 

 the Eagles, and to assign to it a special place just before the 

 former. In Europe this bird is the only representative 

 of its kind ; but it may perhaps be possible to find, among 

 the numerous and not so thoroughly known raptorial birds 

 of the other quarters of the globe, one or two which have 

 similar characteristics and may be placed in the same genus 

 as the Short-toed Eagle. 



But enough of this gruesome game ! No longer will I 

 tax my reader's patience with theoretical controversies, but 

 hasten back to the greenwood under the eagle's nest. 



Laden with my splendid spoil I returned to the cart, 

 in order to pay my first visit to the Black Storks in a 

 neighbouring part of the forest, also intersected with rides. 

 When the eagle had been packed among hay and straw 

 in the high, long, and very uncomfortable country cart, 

 we set off, and in a few minutes again left our vehicle and 

 pushed into the wood. 



Among the low saplings rose some tall isolated and 

 excessively old trees, all of them oaks. On one of these 

 stood the simple and very small nest of a Black Stork. 



* Snake-Eagle. 



