116 FIFTEEN DAYS ON THE DANUBE. 



valley. I crept cautiously up to it, and from the slope on 

 which I stood had a good view into it. 



The Black Stork was standing on one leg within its dwelling 

 and took not the slightest notice of my approach. My shot 

 dropped it dead into the nest; so I called up Hodek's climber, 

 whom we had taken with us, but he was unsuccessful in all 

 his attempts to get up the trunk of the tree, for the recent 

 rain had made it very slippery, and it was not until the 

 following day that a wretched half-crippled peasant of Cerevic 

 brought down the bird. 



When I got back Count Chotek told me that if I had come 

 down a few minutes before I could have easily shot a "Stein" 

 Eagle, which had flown quite low over the cart. The Count 

 and my jager had seen it settle down on a meadow a few 

 hundred yards away in the direction of the above-mentioned 

 decoy-hut ; so I stealthily crept along under the crumbling 

 bank of the brook, thinking that the bird would be sitting on 

 the skeleton of the horse, but as I slowly crawled out of the 

 hollow within good shot of the skeleton, the eagle rose in 

 front of me from the opposite side of the stream, where it had 

 probably been drinking and bathing. It was already about a 

 hundred paces away, and the shot which I let drive at it had 

 no effect. 



We now set out again, first driving back some distance 

 along the valley, then turning to our left into a wretched 

 forest-track, and keeping on in the same direction across a 

 long clearing for nearly an hour and a half. The way was 

 steep, and so rough in the dry parts that one could hardly 

 keep one's seat in the cart, while in the shaded places pits 

 and almost bottomless pools had been formed in the deep 

 loamy soil. 



The endurance and cleverness of the horses were amazing, 

 for the drivers, who, according to the custom of the country, 

 had got down to lighten the loads, had been left far behind, 



