122 FIFTEEN DAYS ON THE DANUBE. 



for some feathers dropped, but again the shot rattled off it 

 without taking effect, and for a moment I thought with 

 horror that my cartridges could only be loaded with powder, 

 as such a thing had never happened to me before. The other 

 six vultures were not the least frightened by the shots, and 

 came sweeping over me one after another; but I had lost all 

 desire to shoot at these huge birds, and let them fly quietly 

 past. 



We now hastened up a steep slope to the nest, and as it 

 was not quite so strongly constructed as the one above 

 described, I really thought for a moment that we should here 

 find a noble " Stein " Eagle, nor was it until the tree had been 

 repeatedly struck that the heavy form of a Cinereous Vulture 

 emerged from the nest. Luckily I had chosen a good look- 

 out, and gave it my first barrel loaded with B.B. full in the 

 breast, and as it crashed down through the branches hard hit 

 the second shot broke its wing. 



Now, thought I, that is at last enough for this bird; but, 

 no, it caught hold of a branch, and as it stood upright with 

 its broken wing hanging down, its bare neck and head full of 

 wounds and covered with blood, and its beak wide agape, it 

 presented a striking picture. Another shot was required to 

 bring it quite down to the ground, and a good many blows 

 with a thick stick to give it its final quietus. 



I hurried up to my spoil, pleased and proud at having at 

 last succeeded in killing a Cinereous Vulture ; but my en- 

 thusiasm was promptly checked when I got close to the dead 

 bird, for such an insupportable stench of carrion surrounded 

 the body of the disgusting creature, that I was compelled to 

 retire several paces. How often had I previously laughed at 

 Brehm when he protested that not for all the wealth of the 

 world would he ever again skin one of these vultures with 

 his own hands ! 



This ignoble bird, with its very weak claws, never livrs 



