SEVENTH DAY. 121 



upward jerk from the branch and flew away down the valley, 

 making a great deal of noise and vanishing among the trees, 

 for it took but little notice of the two shots which I let drive 

 at it, though a few feathers fell, and the Slavonian woodman 

 thought that it was hard hit in the side. I waited vainly for 

 another half-hour, and was quite disheartened by this mishap ; 

 for I had now bungled both the pairs of vultures which had 

 been sho'wn to me, and I did not know whether I should have 

 any further chance of killing one to-day. However, the great 

 good fortune which always favours me out shooting helped 

 me over the difficulty later on in the afternoon. 



While sitting at the first nest I had noticed that a young 

 " Stein'' Eagle, and often also a young Sea-Eagle, kept 

 stooping at a certain heavily foliaged oak in the middle of a 

 beech wood; and as the forester had already told me that the 

 eagles detested the vultures, and were in the habit of tor- 

 menting them at every opportunity, I had a lucky inspiration, 

 and resolved to make a final effort and go to the place at which 

 I had seen the eagles so constantly swooping. The Servian 

 woodman, who had noted this even before I did, had gone 

 off to the spot without saying anything, and now came back 

 with the news that he had, from a distance, seen a light- 

 coloured head projecting from the nest, and thought that it 

 must be that of an eagle; but the ornithological knowledge 

 of all these people being so very defective, my hopes of again 

 encountering a vulture revived, and I hurried off to the 

 place along a spur of the mountain-ridge. On reaching an 

 open spot, where I had a wonderful view, I saw in the 

 distance seven Cinereous Vultures rise into the air and fly 

 one after another straight towards the place where we were 

 standing. 



I made ready to shoot without concealing myself, and as 

 the first vulture passed over my head within twenty to 

 twenty-five yards I fired both barrels, and certainly hit it, 



