40 FIFTEEN DAYS ON THE DANUBE. 



Wild vines and hops had wound themselves round the 

 trunks of the trees, and the ground was covered by a mixture 

 of high rank grass, sedge, and other aquatic plants. Looking 

 towards the direction from which we had come, I had a view 

 of the inundated district, with its reed-beds, thickets, clumps 

 of wood, open sheets of water, and all the wild medley of this 

 remarkable locality. In the opposite direction I could see a 

 narrow reed-covered channel with a wood of lofty trees behind 

 it, which, so far as I could make out, rose from dry ground. 

 A few paces from the nest were some of the enormous oaks 

 centuries old, whose broad trunks we selected as our hiding- 

 places, while a few leafy boughs laid above us were to serve 

 as a screen. As a place for shooting from, this spot left much 

 to be desired, for the broad branches of the trees covered us 

 like a tent. How long I crouched there I know not, but I 

 found the time pass pretty quickly, surrounded as we were by 

 merry life. 



The Wood-Pigeons and Stock-Doves fluttered about the 

 oak trees, and cooed so peacefully, while, urged by their 

 amatory feelings, the cock birds mounted high into the blue 

 ether, and dropped whirring down to the dead tree-tops of 

 the opposite wood. Crows and Jackdaws flew to and fro, and 

 a joyous crowd of songsters were warbling their most melo- 

 dious ditties, though unhappily the monotonous cries of the 

 Coots, Ducks, and green-footed Moorhens, as well as the 

 perpetual croaking of the frogs, almost drowned their melody. 

 These creatures are the regular pests of the " auen," but 

 how agreeable they are compared to those arch-torments of 

 the sportsman the bloodthirsty mosquitoes which swarm in 

 these woo^ls ! Hardly were we quietly settled in our hiding- 

 place when a humming began round us, and the wretched 

 insects commenced their fiercest attacks on my face and hands ; 

 and what would it be like in the evening, when the exhala- 

 tions rose from the moist ground and floated in ghostly 



