420 MISCELLANEOUS NOTES 



Of Lower Austria I can speak from my own experience 

 and from many personal observations, for in this part of the 

 country I was even lucky enough to kill a very large 

 " Stein " Eagle. In the whole neighbourhood of Vienna it 

 is one of the regularly recurring sights, and in all the pre- 

 serves among the auen of the Danube, as well as in the 

 Wiener- Wald and the open country, most of the keepers have 

 tales to relate of what has happened to them in their encounters 

 with these eagles. Several have already been shot in the 

 little pheasant-preserves near Laxenburg, and between 1840 

 and 1850 many of these noble birds were killed in the 

 Imperial park, which they used to frequent as long as there 

 was a large slaughter-house close beside the wall near Upper 

 St. Veit. Even now, young eagles may be seen cruising 

 above the meadows, attracted by the abundance of game. 

 Thus, for instance, in July 1878 a " Stein " Eagle took up 

 its abode within the park for three weeks, and in the 

 middle of September I saw one circling high above that 

 locality. 



Certain spots are specially affected by these eagles, because 

 they are well situated, abound in game, and are quiet. To 

 such localities they come year after year, and often remain 

 a considerable time. There is, for example, a fir- wood near 

 Gaiiserndorf, in Lower Austria, which, being well stocked 

 with hares and rabbits, is a regular hunting-ground of the 

 " Stein " Eagle. In autumn, when work in the fields is over 

 and large flights of wild geese pitch on them every evening, 

 the eagles also appear, and stay for days and even weeks. 

 Others then relieve them, but there are often a good many 

 there at the same time, and so it goes on until the middle of 

 March. 



This locality is well peopled ; several villages lie in its 

 immediate neighbourhood ; roads and railways run past it ; 

 the wood is not large, and the only positions which afford the 



