ij2 SPORT AND TRAVEL 



covered with snow, which, however, soon began to 

 melt when the sun came out. I sent Achmet with 

 two other men and a pack horse for the meat of the 

 deer, and then went for an ornithological ramble with 

 Dr. Carpuzza, but though we found three griffon 

 vultures' nests, they were all in places we could not 

 reach. 



On the following day I went with Achmet up the 

 mountain to the left of our camp. The snow lay very 

 deep (usually about five feet when probed with a stick), 

 but we never sank in it above the knees, and there 

 was often a crust which bore us. On this day, I 

 found an eagle's nest, built in the mouth of a small 

 cave, half-way up the face of a precipice. I got a 

 view of the bird as she flew off the nest. She was 

 very dark-coloured in body and tail, with head and 

 neck greyish, and I identified her as a golden eagle. 

 I then climbed some rocks opposite the cliff on which 

 the nest was built, and saw with my glasses that there 

 were two eggs in it. These eggs I was determined 

 to have, though I saw at once they were not to be 

 taken without a rope. So I returned to camp, and 

 sent Mustapha down to a large village below the pass 

 to buy ropes, and also to bring men and pack animals 

 to shift our camp. 



On Thursday, March 18, Mustapha returned with the 

 pack ponies and their drivers and about three hundred 

 feet of strong native rope, and we then all proceeded 

 to the cliff where the eagle's nest was situated. This 



