ORNITHOLOGICAL NOTES. 541 
woods in the western vicinity of Prague, where there is a 
remarkably large stock of Blackgame. Perhaps it may be 
regarded as one of the degenerations arising from over- 
population, 
The first Swallows (Hirundo rustica) were seen flying 
about the banks of one of the arms of the Danube on April 
16th, and the following day I saw some of them in Vienna. 
Arriving in Prague on the 19th I could not, in spite of 
diligent observation, discover any Swallows, nor was it until 
the 21st that I met with some on the Moldau south of the 
city, and a few days later found them in the villages of 
Northern Bohemia, though in very small numbers. 
Up to the present date I have only once seen the Martin 
(Chelidon urbica) this year, and that was on April 16th, when 
I observed a large flock flying at a great rate up-stream along 
the bank of the Danube, near Vienna. 
This winter seems also to have affected the movements of 
the birds of prey. Several Sea-Eagles (Haliaétus albicilla) 
made their ordinary annual appearance in November, among 
the auen of the Danube below Vienna, and left before the 
middle of March, this being the period that the Sea- 
Eagles generally visit Lower Austria. From March to 
November there are usually none of them to be seen in that 
region; but this year it was different, for on April 10th, as T 
was stealing along an arm of the Danube to watch the Cor- 
morants fishing, a Sea-Hagle suddenly dropped from a tree a 
few hundred yards away, hunted up and down the water 
several times, and soon afterwards perched upon a silver 
poplar well furnished with dead branches. 
I stalked up as carefully as possible under cover of the 
wood and managed to reach the edge of a little open, within 
sixty to seventy paces of the tree. An old but very small 
male was sitting on a branch looking towards the water, 
and a perfectly enormous female was lazily resting beside 
