St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1879-08-01
Hunting the Vulture.

THE CROWN PRINCE OF AUSTRIA AND
-IIIo I'VvrN uUI rIru AUV
An august lady till very recently in
our midst has shown us that Austrian
hOrsemanship, even when pitted against
the cream of our hard riders in field
mt once formidable and strange to her,
is by no means despicable; and book
which Continental and some of our Eng
lish journals recently announced as
having been published by her yet
youthful son, the young Grown Prince
of Austria, well known to the upper
circles of London society from his visit
to England year or two ago, proves
in Il very striking manner the remark
able proficiency in the handling of the
sporting rifle, and the very praiseworthy
intelligent love for the scientific aspect
of sport which distinguishes the heir to
the Hapsburgh throne. 1t is book
which from variety of reasons would
prove uncOmmOnly attractive to Eng
lish readers, for not only does it con-
tain Il fund of most interesting sporting
incidents throwing new light upon some
OF the most veXed question among natu-
ralists, but it describes in genial and
strikingly unaffected manner "A sporting
tour covering districts very little known
even i'll Austria, and, as we believe,
never yet visited by English sportsmen,
namely, the lower reaches of the Dan
ube in Hungary and SlavOnia, near the
cOntluX of the two most important trib-
utary streams of the Danube, the
brave, and the Thesis, the latter of
| terrible memory.
| Long had the Crown Prince enter
timed the desire to visit these parts,
when, at last, in April, 1873, the longed-
for opportunity offered itself. Professor
hehm, the well-known writer, whose
works on ornithology have been trans
lsted into every European language,
and who is personal friend of the
Crown Prince, happened to be then
saying on a visit in Vienna. His COM
pany on this expedition was dear OBJ
jet to his imperial pupil, and finally
hs consented to join the expeditionary
fGces as head of the scientific depart
ment, having as very able coadjutor
the no less well-known authority on
I dent of the Berlin OrnitholOgicaI Asso-
citation.
i At Cerevic the party was met by
Count Rudolf Chotek, who with his
4 brother owns this and some other very
extensive districts in South Hungary
He was the bearer of excellent news
and the wild "Slavonian Alps" the
ridge to which we have already alluded
as bearing the name of Frnska Cora
an extensive, richly timbered, and II
many places very steep chain OF noun
tain-like hills, which was to be tn
Snortinr oround for the next three o
four days-were, according to COun
Chotek's description, the home OF som
most interesting species OF teathere
, game, among them that mighty mon
ster, the monk Tor cinereOus vulture
E the largest European bird. The firs
! forenoon of their stay at Cerevic wa
lost to sport, for it happened to he til
: great fete day of the Greek Churcl
: their Easter Sunday /; and as the ma
u Il iority of the Slavonians belong to tn;
u faith, the departure was postponed Il
= after church time. They had not pei
u etrated very far into the fine old fores
d that skirt these bills when the part
d caught sight of the first monk vultuT
II Considerably larger than any Europe;
eagle, this bird measures when II
grown from nine to ten feet in the spa
Of weighing when he is in gorged sta
ID as much as, if not more than, brlttl
" roebuck.
Seen from a distance when he
n circling in the air, the wings spread
f. the full but perfectly motionlesss, t
n- long bald neck contracted, he is
ne emblem of royal freedom and strengt
to what contrast when you get close