148 FIFTEEN DAYS ON THE DANUBE. 
furious, and the bird was so close, that the keeper, although a 
perfectly courageous man, was obliged to spring behind the 
trunk of an adjacent beech tree to guard himself against a. 
fresh assault. I had often heard of such madly daring and 
dangerous attacks having been made by the parent eagles 
close to their nests; but quite out in the open wood, and only 
near the body of a dead companion, it was quite a new 
phenomenon both to Brehm and myself, and a very in- 
teresting one. 
Brehm further told us that after this episode he had waited 
a good many hours in his hiding-place, until at last there 
came a “ Stein” Eagle, a big powerful bird, at which he was 
induced to fire as it sat on a rock rather too far away, and 
though it flew off hard hit, all attempts to find it were 
ineffectual. This was a great pity, not only for Brehm, but 
for all of us, for if he had killed the bird we should have 
brought home with us all the species of Austrian eagles; as 
‘it was, there remained a palpable blank in our collection, for 
we did not find a nest of this shy species anywhere. It would, 
moreover, have been a matter of great interest for the two 
Savants to have secured just at this moment a freshly-killed 
“Stein” Eagle, in order to have taken its measurements, 
and to have made use of it for the monograph on the 
“Stein” and Golden Eagles which they were now writing. 
This was the cause of our finding Brehm in such a de- 
jected frame of mind, a state of depression greatly aggravated 
by a bad headache from which he was suffering, and which 
compelled him to pass the entire day quietly in his cabin, all 
he had been able to do having been to take a little morning 
stroll through the vineyards, where he had bagged a beautiful 
Rock-Thrush, another new addition to our collection. 
As soon as the steamer had got under weigh we had 
luncheon served, for Count Chotek wished us to make a short 
voyage up-stream, first to pay a visit to the nests along the 
