in the Dobrud&cha . 
373 
Black Storks had taken lodgings for the season, as we found out 
one morning about the 27th of April. Some little time elapsed 
before we discovered the secret of the entrance from the top, a 
fact of which the Black Storks were probably not cognizant. 
At the time of our first visit there were no eggs, nor indeed was 
there anything exactly worthy of the name of a nest. But in the 
floor of the chamber was a circular depression about the size and 
shape of a large dinner plate, not far from the edge of the aperture. 
For what singular purpose this depression, evidently artificial, 
had been made, was to us as great a mystery as the origin of the 
entire excavation. The Black Stork had evidently thought she 
could put it to some use, for it was here, upon a few dry sticks 
which partially filled the depression, that she meant to lay her 
eggs. As it was necessary for me to leave Turkey altogether 
about the 4th of May, it was agreed not to approach the 
place again till the day before my departure. In the interim I 
used occasionally to take a stroll down the valley, and seat 
myself on the opposite hill, where, through the telescope, I 
could see the Black Stork sitting composedly on her make¬ 
shift of a nest, looking like some spirit of darkness in its cave. 
Already I was counting the eggs, which would undoubtedly 
have been mine but for the evil curiosity of a Transylvanian 
shepherd, who had noticed me spying into the hole, and had per¬ 
haps seen us entering it. On the appointed day I rode over with 
my friend R. B. Dismounting at the edge of the cliff, we crept 
down to the crack in the rock, and thence through the artificial 
passage into the chamber itself. Neither bird nor eggs were 
visible; some great catastrophe had happened, and the eggs I had 
counted on, though laid, were missing. It transpired that the 
Transylvanian had done the deed, having probably sucked the 
eggs on the spot. We sought him everywhere in the desperate 
hope that he might have preserved them, perhaps also with the 
view of taking the change out of him in some other way in the 
extremely probable event of their not being forthcoming. For¬ 
tunately for the Transylvanian he was not to be found. 
Through the kindness of my friend I was not wholly disap¬ 
pointed after all. The Black Stork returned to her nest and 
laid two more eggs, which he secured and brought over to Eng- 
