FIFTH DAY. 91 



hundred yards into the wood. Herr Rampelt himself did 

 not precisely know where the nest was ; and while I was 

 looking about for it, I suddenly observed a fine Raven 

 roosting on a dead branch of a tall elm, with its head under 

 its wing, although it was still quite light, and cautiously 

 creeping within a fair range, shot down the powerful bird. 



I was quite amazed at having really killed, close to a village 

 and a high road in Southern Hungary, a bird which I had 

 seen in the loneliest cliffs of our Alps, in the desolate oak- 

 forests of Central Hungary during snow and storm, on the 

 barren peak of the Santi Deka mountain near Corfu, among 

 the precipices of the Dalmatian hills, and on the desolate 

 Karst everywhere far from human habitations. 



I turned back to the carriages with my spoil ; but Brehm 

 did not seem to be so much impressed by the Haven, as he 

 had seen this bird even sitting on the houses in the villages 

 of Siberia. 



This unimportant little wood, as I was further informed, 

 harbours many Woodcock in spring, and is tenanted by some 

 Wild Cats throughout the year. 



We now resumed our journey, and instead of keeping to 

 the northerly direction we had hitherto followed, we gradually 

 inclined towards the north-east, and soon leaving the main 

 road turned off into a very rough track which led to the 

 " auen " already visible in the distance. 



In a little while we came to a miserable village straggling 

 along the banks of a marshy stream. Its clay-built, straw- 

 thatched dwellings hardly deserved the name of houses, and 

 our progress along the broad street which ran through them 

 was impeded by horse-troughs and great heaps of dirt and 

 manure, while shaggy wolf-dogs sprang barking at the 

 carriages, and wretchedly-clad children were running about. 

 This was a village of Schokats, Catholic Servians who long ago 

 migrated from Turkey, and who, curiously enough, still show 



