FOURTEENTH DAY. 217 



the morning were made. Leopold got into a boat and went 

 off to the dense wood of gigantic willows which at the true 

 Draueck separates both the Danube and the Drave from the 

 Hullo swamp, and where the Sea-Eagle's nest was situated 

 at which the two Savants had made an unsuccessful attempt 

 some days ago. 



A few minutes later Brehm, Homeyer, Bornbelles, and I, 

 with the jagers and Hodek's crew, also quitted the steamer in 

 the ' Vienna,' and leaving the Danube rowed up a side 

 channel to a keeper's house. 



A belt of trees, so narrow that one could everywhere see 

 through it, ran between the right bank of this arm of the 

 river and the Hullo marsh, and on the left it was separated 

 from the main stream by a much-flooded island walled-in by 

 reeds and covered with a wild tangle of woods. 



The keeper's house stood upon an artificial mound raised to 

 protect it from the great inundations, and the aforesaid strip 

 of wood stretched up to and beyond it; but being somewhat 

 above the level of the marsh it w r as, at this spring season of 

 the year, only partially submerged. Nevertheless we could 

 not reach the house altogether dry shod, and its inmates 

 could only communicate with the rest of the world by boat. 



Singularly enough, we found great numbers of Starlings 

 in this watery wilderness; for this tame bird seems to affect 

 the companionship of man and follows him into the most 

 out-of-the-way places. The trees surrounding this solitary 

 dwelling were thickly peopled with them, while Falcons and 

 Kites were circling over the water, and Crows and Herons 

 were leisurely winging their way from wood to wood ; but, 

 unfortunately, our time was short, and we had to hasten on 

 towards the interior of the marsh. 



On rowing round the keeper's house we at once saw that 

 it would be impossible to get the large ' Vienna' across the 

 shallows under the trees between us and the swamp ; so 



