10 FIFTEEN DAYS ON THE DANUBE. 
of Csepel, on which are several important villages. This part 
of the country is on the whole rather monotonous, but still 
there is a certain repose in its outlines which gives grandeur 
to the scenery. 
A soft west wind was blowing refreshingly over the water, 
already warmed by the sun; above us, the clear blue cloud- 
less sky stretched its broad arch; and to our left the great 
Hungarian plains faded off into the far distance, beyond the 
range of our vision. 
Up to this point the banks were bare, treeless, and generally 
crumbling, and in places where they were a few yards high 
we saw many Sand-Martins, with their nests in rows of small 
holes close together ; but, on the whole, there was but little 
life on the Danube. 
Some Rooks and Hooded Crows flew from bank to bank, 
while Mallards and Teal were swimming about the flooded 
meadows and flying over the vessel, either singly or in flocks ; 
and on a tongue of land projecting between the main stream 
and part of the submerged country I recollect having seen 
about twenty of these birds 
all drakes. The females were 
probably breeding ; so it seems that this sensible bird prefers 
to leave its better half busy with such household matters while 
it wanders about the neighbourhood with its fellows. We 
also saw Lapwings, with their eccentric flight, tumbling about 
everywhere over the wet meadows. 
The further south we went the more the tree-growth in- 
creased. At first it was sparse, but afterwards became 
luxuriant and had even an “au ’”’-like character. The 
villages near the river got scarcer, and as they decreased 
the banks grew proportionally more lonely and uncivilized. 
At first we saw only a few very small islands covered with 
thick “auen,” though later on they became more numerous, 
and along both sides of the stream ran a very narrow but 
luxuriantly green belt of wood. 
