TWELFTH DAY. 195 



being high time that I did so, for I had still a very wide 

 extent of country to explore. Having got back to the cart I 

 drove a little further along the borders of the wood, and then 

 turned into a broad and perfectly straight road, the only one 

 which traverses the entire length of the Kovil forest. 

 Throughout its course it runs through dense scrub, low, 

 almost impenetrable copses, and high woods, and being 

 bordered by ditches on both sides shows a certain trace of 

 human care. I must have driven along it for another good 

 half-hour before Hodek begged me to leave the cart and to 

 enter the wood by a narrow footpath, which led away from 

 the road in an easterly direction. 



This track at first took us through bushes and across little 

 glades, where there was everywhere plenty of life; for Warblers, 

 Thrushes, Finches, Buntings, Orioles, Turtle-Doves, and 

 Cuckoos were uttering their various notes and flitting 

 merrily about among the branches, while the thickets kept 

 getting still denser, and a few thin ugly oaks rose above 

 them. 



On one of these oaks stood the large well-built nest of a 

 Sea-Eagle, and I could hardly have believed it possible that 

 so large a bird could have constructed so heavy a nest on 

 such a slender miserable tree; but a dearth of more suitable 

 places had compelled it to do so. This was the only Sea- 

 Eagle's nest which we discovered in the woods round Kovil. 



Unfortunately the herdsmen, who wander about with their 

 flocks all day long, had made this pair of eagles quite shy 

 and unapproachable with their pistol-shots; for as soon as the 

 birds detected us they rose high in the air and circled round 

 uttering their ominous screams of alarm; and though I crouched 

 down below the nest, well concealed among the thick bushes, 

 and waited for a good hour, the shy creatures never left the 

 place for a moment, but kept wheeling overhead at a uniform 

 height, looking down at me all the while. I had thus an 



02 



