SECOND DAY. 23 



enthusiasm for a sailor's life, to which 1 myself openly 

 confess. 



Our siesta did not last long ; for the indefatigable Brehm 

 reminded us of work, and Homeyer and I followed him to 

 the fore part of the vessel. All the birds we had killed were 

 measured, and their dimensions and colours entered in 

 accurately kept books. Then our diaries had to be written 

 up, and the notes \vhich we had collected interchanged. 

 Hodek took possession of the spoils to prepare them with the 

 help of his son. The three Night Herons were skinned for 

 the collection, but only the crests of the eight Grey Herons 

 and the eight Cormorants were kept ; while the Hooded 

 Crow, Rook, Wryneck, Reed- Warblers, and Grasshopper- 

 Warblers, which had all been brought back, chiefly for the 

 sake of their measurements, were partly disposed of, feathers 

 and all, by my Eagle-Owl, and partly found their way to the 

 skinning table. 



When our w r ork was quite finished, we paced the deck, 

 watching the changing landscapes. The further south we 

 went the more the character of the country altered ; and in 

 order that the reader may have an idea of the region to 

 which he must fancy himself transported, I will name some 

 of the villages we passed, and which may be found in any map 

 of Hungary. I remember that we ran by a good many of 

 them, most of which lay on the right bank, for there the 

 immediate neighbourhood of the river was not made impass- 

 able by a belt of " auen " or by marshes, but a low chain of 

 hills descended to the water's edge in slopes both gentle and 

 abrupt, and sometimes even in precipitous walls of earth. 

 First we came to Duna-Pentele, then to Duna-Fb'ldvar and 

 Paks. As well as we could see from a distance, all these 

 villages were of the true Hungarian type. Long rows of low 

 straw-thatched houses, broad streets full of horse-troughs, 

 high draw-wells, vegetable gardens trailing off into the sand, 



