102 FIFTEEN DAYS ON THE DANUBE. 



When we were all on board we took leave of the Land- 

 Steward and the somewhat numerous staff of foresters; 

 and I must here acknowledge with many thanks the kindly 

 care in arranging and facilitating our troublesome shooting 

 excursions which was so largely displayed by all the Arch- 

 ducal officials during our several days' stay in this neigh- 

 bourhood. 



In order to give the reader some idea of the wealth of 

 raptorial birds in these Archducal forests, I will here enume- 

 rate the nests which the keepers said they knew of. Most of 

 these we visited, only omitting a few which were too far off 

 our beat. When such a number were found in such dense 

 and almost impassable woods, how many must there still have 

 been in these immense wildernesses that the keepers could 

 not possibly have known anything about ! 



Those well known were : Twelve Sea-Eagles', one Short- 

 toed Eagle's, three Ospreys', one Eagle-Owl's, eight or nine 

 Ravens', twenty to thirty Black Storks', and some twenty nests 

 belonging to smaller hawks. What a number of feathered 

 vermin on one and the same estate ! And in what part of 

 Central Europe so near such a large town as Pest does there 

 exist a similar refuge for such uncommonly shy birds of 

 prey? 



The Archducal estates are, however, the most northerly 

 points on the Danube where the large eagles breed, and the 

 " auen " of the Bega Canal are the very nearest woods to 

 Pest where the Sea-Eagle can be found nesting ; but from 

 what I know of the character of these districts and of their 

 advancing civilization, I think I may safely predict that ten 

 or twenty years hence no Sea-Eagles will be found there, 

 while in the wilds round Apatin they will long be able to 

 carry on their predatory pursuits quite unmolested. 



The weather had cleared during the morning, so we had 

 every reason to look forward to a pleasant and interesting 



