no THE ARCTIC BLUE-THROAT. 



might not then have returned empty-handed; but 

 silence was enjoined, and a little further up, the 

 small punts were brought up under a thin tree, 

 in the upper branches of which was a huge nest. 

 I imagined that we had been brought to see the 

 nest of the Spotted Eagle, as our progress had 

 not been particularly quiet — certainly there had 

 been a good deal of shifting on my part to escape 

 the water in which I was sitting for the best part 

 of the time — when suddenly there was a scuffling 

 noise overhead, and away flew an Eagle from the 

 nest. We had been a minute or two beneath 

 the tree, and the last thought in my mind was 

 that there was a bird on the nest, and we were 

 all, more or less, taken by surprise. - My gun was 

 lying by my side, and by the time I had cocked 

 it and fired my two barrels, the Eagle was well 

 away, unharmed also by the shots of my com- 

 panions — and so I lost my first chance at a 

 Spotted Eagle, and narrowly escaped a ducking 

 in the black water, owing to the sudden losing 

 of my equilibrium in the act of turning and firing. 

 Luckily the keepers, in charge of the punts, 

 spoke nothing but Hungarian, and our excuses 

 were made in English, German, and French, 



