196 FIFTEEN DAYS ON THE DANUBE. 



opportunity of watching their truly majestic flight, as with- 

 out any visible movement of their wings they sailed through 

 the air; hut not even the hungry cries of the two almost 

 fledged young ones ever induced the parents to come near 

 the nest. 



Both the old eagles were particularly large and finely 

 coloured, and their pale plumage looked so attractive that I 

 should have had great pleasure in adding one of them to our 

 collection; Jbut my patience was all in vain, and when Hodek 

 came up to my hiding-place, and besought me to leave it and 

 to go further on, I yielded to his advice, and proceeded 

 towards the interior of the forest, following the same path. 



After walking a little way through the thickets, we reached 

 a high oak wood where a few white poplars and wild fruit- 

 trees with an undergrowth of hawthorn diversified the other- 

 wise rather common-place-looking cover. 



Unhappily this locality, like all other parts of these forests, 

 was swarming with wandering herds of pigs, sheep, and cattle, 

 while wild cut-throat-looking herdsmen, with their grey, 

 shaggy wolf-dogs, loafed after the pasturing beasts. All these 

 men are armed with pistols, partly for scaring the wolves, 

 which range about these districts, and partly for protecting 

 themselves against the powerful wild-boar-like males of the 

 so-called tame .pigs ; for every year, as I was told by people 

 on the spot, several of these herdsmen are attacked while 

 asleep and killed by their own pigs in the most horrible way. 

 They also use their pistols during their leisure hours for firing 

 useless shots at the birds of prey and the nests, the result 

 being that all the raptorial birds become uncommonly shy, 

 especially in these forests. 



Close to the head-quarters of the great herds I found many 

 large wolf-tracks, and near the path were the remains of a 

 mangled lamb. 



The part of the forest which we had now got to harbours 



