196 Messrs. C. G. Dauford and J. A. liarvie Brown on 



for this. Other animals^ such as wild cat, fox, badger, otter, 

 yellow- and white-breasted martens, and the smaller carni- 

 vora are pretty numerous. The ibex and aurochs have long 

 been extinct. Of the former we have not been able to learn 

 much. Of the latter, Bieltz, in his ' Fauna der Wirbelthiere 

 Siebenbiirgens ' (p. 35), says, on the authority of Benko, that 

 some were seen in March 1775 in a wood at Fiile, in the dis- 

 trict of Udvarhely — that, according to Fridvaldszky (' Mi- 

 neralogia Magni Principatus Transsilvaniae,^ Claudiopoli A.S. 

 MDCCLXVIIL, p. 6), they especially frequented the woods 

 of Gyergyo, in the neighbourhood of a marsh ; and that Pe- 

 tenyi says that the last killed in Transylvania was in the year 

 1814. 



Feathered game is certainly not abundant. There are a 

 good many Capercaillie in the quiet pine- woods pretty high 

 up ; but they are only to be got at during the pairing-season. 

 Hazel-Grouse, too, are common in the lower woods, but are 

 not easily found, unless the call-system be adopted. Black 

 game are scarcely worth mentioning, as far as sport is con- 

 cerned ; they are so scarce, and in such out-of-the-way places. 

 In the grain-districts one would expect to find a good many 

 Partridges ; but this is not the case ; the coveys are few and 

 far between — want of preservation, and the number of Hooded 

 Crows and birds of j)rey, making life rather hard for them. 

 Quails are numerous ; but the best sport to be got is the 

 autumn Woodcock-shooting, particularly at Gorgeny and in 

 the Haromseg, while for Snipe the salt marshes near Maros- 

 Ujvar would be well worth trying. From what we saw of 

 the Mezoseg, we should think that the winter Duck-shooting 

 must be capital ; better ground one could not wish for than 

 its numerous small lakes connected with reedy marshes ; and 

 in the neighbourhood of Thorda there are always a few Bus- 

 tards. On the whole we should say that luck and perseve- 

 rance have a good deal to do with sport in Transylvania. 



It now remains for us, before commencing the second part 

 of our paper, to express om* obligations to the many kind 

 friends for the frank and hospitable way in which we were 

 everywhere received and our plans assisted. Especially are 



