FIFTH DAY. 73 



third this being evidently a particularly good spot for 

 fishing. 



After a while we came to swampy flooded meadows, where 

 our road again ran along a high embankment. There great 

 numbers of Coots were swimming about on both sides, 

 although there were no reeds to give them cover ; while 

 Herons stood pensively in the water, and both Black and 

 Common Terns were busy fishing. Starlings and Wagtails, 

 too, were running about among the herds of cattle and 

 horses which were grazing on the banks, and a White Stork 

 was heavily winging its way towards the neighbouring 

 village. 



A little way in front of us we saw a steep unbroken rise of 

 uniform height the first elevation of the surface of the 

 country above the level of the Danube. On the brow of this 

 slope stood a ' large village of the true Hungarian and some- 

 what primitive type ; and when we got up to it the road led 

 us past its outskirts into a long straight avenue of acacias. 



There we observed a large forest about a thousand yards 

 ahead of us ; and on my asking whether this was the " Kes- 

 kendi erdo," the coachman, a true Magyar, only answered 

 with a silent nod. So this was the celebrated Keskend 

 Wood, which was to be our shooting-ground of to-day. 

 Black Storks were flying from it to the fields, and they were 

 the first that I had ever seen. This large bird, when it is on 

 the wing, and its colours are lost in the distance, cannot be 

 distinguished from the Common Stork. There were also 

 some Bustards standing in the fields of young corn ; while 

 Cuckoos and Kestrels, frightened by the carriages, flew from 

 tree to tree in the acacia avenue, and a beautiful Hobby had 

 the impudence to seize and carry off a poor Wagtail quite 

 close to us. 



In a few minutes we reached the edge of the wood, our 

 road conducting us into a long broad ride, which extended 



