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


not only for our eyes but also for our
nose, stencil of a quite unbearable
character pervading the air some yards
off and should the lOathsome bird be
only wounded and not killed outright,
he will in his rage belch forth the fetid
oozing filth slowed away in his goitre.
He feeds only on carrion in the most
advanced stage of decomposition, in
stances of this being narrated which
we wOvld rather spare our readers. A
long, wrinkled, wholly bare neck, a
lazy blurred eye, and, most significant
of all, strangely undeveloped talOns,
which are small, excessively weak, and
tiesh-colored, are the chief character
istic features of this most ignOble of
birds. What vast unspeakable diff
ference between him, the cowardly
giant, and his most deadly enemy, the
eagle-much smaller, but the type of
ferOciOus cOurageOusness and of royal
nobility of character, whose brilliant
eye, strong muscular talons with fangs
exhibiting an amazing strength, noble
proportions, and withal of cleanly
habits, carrion never being touched by
an eagle-very rarely, indeed, does he
condescend to touch dead animals, how
ever recently slain-form Il strong con-
trast. The Crown Prince, who had
never before shot a monk vulture,
while perhaps doubling Brehm's ex-
traordinary tales of his disgusting char
acter, was burning to slay one. To
shot, be they of the largest size, the
vulture, protected by amazingly strong
and dense feathers, is seemingly per-
fectly invulnerable, the rifle being the
only weapon capable of bringing him
down a circumstance fully borne out
by the experience of the party, who
fred at least twenty shots with buck
shot at vultures, and with the eXcep-
ton of one who was only some few
yards off, not one was killed with shot.
A vulture eyrie had been discovered on
the heights of the hills, and thence
the prince now hurried, arriving at
the place of ambuscade breathless with
climbing the very steep ascent, and
trembling with excitement. 1t must
have been an intensely interesting
watch. There, in the top branches of
an old oak of mighty girth, was the
huge nest on level with the sports
man, for the tree stood at the foot of a
precipice at the top of which the sports
man was hidden.
Game of every kind passed him in
close proximity; Il large stag came
laundering through the dense brush
wood, few yards off, and the tracks
of a couple of wolves were imprinted
in the muddy soil, while large eagles
and smaller vultures kept circling round
the eminence with tantaliZing per-
sistency. Of the view, grand as it was,
comprising the vast Hungarian plain
before him, the broad Danube at his
| feet, and the forests stretching away to
| his right and left as far as the eye could
reach, the author saw but little. His
eyes were bent upon two spots high up
in the bright heavens. Presently they
vanished, and second later rushing
sound, "lOuder than | ever heard,n APP
prised him of the close proximity of the
| two vultuTes, who were making fol-
their eyrie. The next minute they were
perching on branch close to the nest
s'Refnre l hrnnght up the rifle / knew
should miss; the weapon trembled i'll
my hands like a reed, and in vain were
all my efforts to hring the sight of the
rifle to bear upon the broad breast of
the larger of the two vultures." Pres
emily the sharp crack of the rifle rings
out, and both birds, with Il sound like
the Iushing of tempestuOus winds, cir
Gle off. The graphic manner no less
than the charming candor with which
the anthor describes his feelings of ut
ter despair, makes this one of the most
telling and exciting bits in the whole
book. A second vulture was shortly
discovered by one of the Jagers," and
relying this time less upon the steadi-
ness of his nerves, the Crown Prince
used his shotgun. A handful of feath-
ers was all the evidence that his aim at
least had been true. A third bird of
the same species was, after prolonged
search, surprised by the sportsmen,
perched on a low branch, evidently in
a state of gorged surfeit. This time,
the distance being very close, the buck
shot took effect, and the bird came
Tapping through the branches, and
rolled down a slight declivity with a
noise similar TO that of a stag breaking
through dense underwood. He was,
however, not dead yet, and so over
powering was the stencil that hung
around the scene of his last agonies,
that when the Crown Prince came rush
ing down, he started back Overpowered
by the disgusting miasm. So pungent
was the oder that even the SlavOnian
alf-barbarian beater, who was attend
ant upon the Prince, would at first not
hear of carrying the odoriferous ''bag''
back to Cerevic and when it did final
ly get on board the steamer, the whole
ship was in less than five minutes in
fected with the pestilential stencil ;
Brehm, who, it seems, had once in
South America, essayed to skin monk
vulture, declared that he would not re-
peat the experiment for all the riches
of the world. The author does not say
on whom this task finally devolved {;
he mentions, however, that, fortified
by a sound dinner, and with the fra
grant fnmes of strong cigar playing
| 10 -IIeasdIO Uno tOut-
shot that day, and adds, "that was the
utmost human nerves could bear"
We previously referred to the great
hatred existing between the eagle and
the vulture families, and, as several
incidents in this expedition proved, II
is especially the mountain eagle that
pursues the far larger monk vulture
with unexpected ferocity, the Crowr
Prince himself being witness to al
strange an episode in Ornithological ex
, perience as it is well possible to fancy
+ He had been watching for some time
t monk vulture's eyrie in close proximit,
g to where he was hidden. High owe
| his head eircled one of the parent birds
= and still higher smaller bird, which
/, from the manner of flight, he judged t
t be a mountain eagle.
s Suddenly they both disappeared, b
e saw something dash down, and befOI
/, he had time to collect his senses, hug
: ball of feathers, with here and there