166 FIFTEEN DAYS ON THE DANUBE. 



hear the bustle it made as it settled on the edge of the 

 nest, without seeing the arrival of the bird itself. On hearing 

 the noise I remained perfectly quiet, as I wanted to let the 

 eagle get quite confident before I frightened it out of its 

 dwelling ; but, as I afterwards learnt from the jagers, it 

 stayed a long time on the edge of its nest, and if I had bent 

 forward a little I could easily have shot it down at a short 

 range. When, after a few minutes, I did look out, the bird 

 was again on the alert, having perhaps noticed the forester, 

 who was concealed a few hundred yards away ; and hardly had 

 I stepped out of my ambush, when it dashed off, and the two 

 shots which I fired at it were ineffective, for, though a few 

 feathers fell, the eagle seemed to be quite sound. 



There was therefore no further chance of a shot at the pair 

 belonging to this nest, and they were quite lost to me ; so I 

 walked slowly up the hillside to the trap, much annoyed and 

 blaming myself for my clumsiness. 



It was about three o'clock in the afternoon, and the sun 

 was burning fiercely, while far away in the south a storm was 

 passing over the Bosnian mountains. We had now come 

 to the end of the nests that we already knew of ; but these 

 excellent keepers declared that a few days ago they had found 

 another nest, where, according to their account, a smaller 

 hawk was breeding, but such was their entire lack of sporting 

 and ornithological knowledge, that they could not describe 

 what it looked like. I therefore resolved to hurry to it as 

 quickly as I could, and try to retrieve by a fresh success my 

 mishaps at the two nests of the Imperial Eagles. 



Our road now took us back along the mountain-ridge in an 

 easterly direction ; and this part of the drive I employed in 

 devouring a bit of bread which was all that had been put in 

 the game-bag, for I was terribly hungry, and there was no 

 other food obtainable for far and wide. 



For about half an hour we drove obliquely down the 



