1 40 SPORT AND TRAVEL 



tures' nests that I had previously found, but had not 

 been able to reach without a rope, we took the early 

 train to Appa, on the morning of March 24 ; and 

 then, sending on Theodore with the baggage to our 

 old camp, the Doctor and I climbed into the moun- 

 tain, but did not visit the vultures' nests, which were 

 on the spurs immediately above Chardak. We, how- 

 ever, found the nesting-place of a pair of peregrine 

 falcons, though it was too early in the season to hope 

 to get their eggs. In the afternoon, too, we saw great 

 numbers of buzzards, flying about the mountain-side 

 in flocks of twenty or thirty. At one time there were 

 quite one hundred of these fine birds in sight at once. 

 They were, I fancy, rough-legged buzzards (Aguila 

 lagopus] on migration from their winter-quarters in 

 the tropics to their far off nesting-places in Northern 

 Europe. The cranes, too (Grus communis) were now 

 very noisy, and their loud trumpeting cry was con- 

 tinually to be heard from the marshy ground on the 

 edge of the great salt lake in the plain below the 

 mountain. The natives say these birds remain here 

 the whole year round and breed in the marsh, but at 

 the date of my visit they were always to be seen still 

 feeding in flocks, and did not yet seem to have paired. 



The following day, March 25, was my last on the 

 mountain, and was a very satisfactory one, as with the 

 help of the rope, I took three griffon vultures' nests 

 and two black vultures', each nest containing one egg. 



I may mention that all the griffon vultures' nests 



