PIF TE: DAY. 71 
how largely the administration of the estate and all its 
officials are imbued with the extremely noble and hospitable 
spirit of its proprietor. 
Our drive now began. In the first carriage went the 
Land Steward, to show the way. My brother-in-law and 
I followed him, and behind us stretched a whole caravan 
of vehicles, for we had taken a good many men with us, 
all of whom we certainly required for our sport. 
The road at first ran straight along the embankment, and 
was somewhat rough and fatiguing; but in Slavonia, a 
few days later, we should assuredly have called it a high- 
way. Here the stately and partly-flooded woods that at first 
rose on either hand. gradually disappeared on the right, and 
were replaced by stubbed-up clearings and marshy pastures ; 
for we had reached the outskirts of the forests, and my 
great desire of seeing what the outer surroundings of these 
Hungarian “auen”’ looked like was now gratified. 
I found that the character of this district strongly reminded 
me of the northern fringe of our splendid Lower Austrian 
“auen” at Stadll-Enzersdorf and Miihllenten ; for the 
connected forests tailed off in willow woods, succeeded by 
almost stagnant watercourses, damp pastures, copses well 
stocked with singing birds and ornamented with a_ few 
high trees, and finally by detached patches of beautiful 
oak woods with a bushy undergrowth. Our way led through 
the whole of this park-like country, from the “ auen”? them- 
selves to their outermost borders, and the further we got 
into the region of the inland woods the more animated and 
rich in species was the world of small birds and the more did 
the entries in our note-books resemble hieroglyphies ; for the 
increasing roughness of this very Hungarian road allowed of 
nothing better. 
The true “auen” of the islands and wildernesses are 
poor in small birds ; for though they harbour many stately 
