IN TRANSYLVANIA. 561 
by fifty broad, where they were screaming and quarrelling 
for the best roosting-places. Not far from this spot an 
equally large number of Hooded Crows assembled to sleep 
together on three tall poplars in the middle of the village of 
Szt. Maria Boldogfalva. 
On the banks of the stream I saw the Grey Wagtail 
(Motacilla sulphurea); and among the fields Quail were 
calling everywhere, some of which I flushed, and on August 
7th I killed a bird of the year full-grown and in perfect 
plumage. 
On the stubble-fields I saw an extraordinary number of 
Lesser Spotted Eagles (Aguila nevia) and also some of the 
Larger Spotted (A. clanga). These birds allowed us not 
only to drive but even to walk close past them, and in this 
way I shot an old specimen of the former. 
A few Common Kites and Kestrels, one Common Buz- 
zard, one Short-toed Eagle (Circaétus gallicus), Great Grey 
Shrikes (Lanius ewcubitor), Red-backed Shrikes (2. col- 
lurio), Turtle-Doves (Turtur auritus), and Hoopoes (Upupa 
epops) complete the list of the birds that I noticed while 
driving over the plain. 
Near Malomyiz, at the foot of the high mountains, I laid 
out a carcass as a future bait for eagles or vultures; but as I 
came down to the plain from the highest regions of the 
Retyezat for just a single day, I had little time to visit 
the decoy-hut, and only spent two hours there, vainly waiting 
for the appearance of birds of prey. Just as we were leaving 
the place, however, and were only a few hundred yards from 
the carrion, a very large Griffon Vulture (Vultur fulvus) flew 
over our heads, and we saw in the distance an eagle, which 
we could not manage to identify. 
I must now preface my remarks on the Transylvanian Alps, 
the special region that we explored, by a short description of 
their leading features. 
bo 
2) 
