NOTES 



BIRDS OF PREY. 



SEPTEMBER 1883. 



I HAVE lately had an opportunity of devoting a little more 

 attention to some of our Lower Austrian birds of prey. 



The wide plain south of the Danube, between the Wiener 

 "Wald and the Leitha mountains, is inhabited by large num- 

 bers of many species of raptorial birds, and since May of the 

 present year I have been able to pay frequent visits to the 

 fields and heaths that lie between Laxenburg, Yelm, Him- 

 berg, and Lanzendorf. 



In May and June I saw but few hawks, only some Marsh- 

 Harriers ( Circus ceruginosus) and Montagu's Harriers ( C. cine- 

 raceus), and even these were but sparsely distributed. It is not 

 difficult to see the reason of this : there is a great deal of work 

 going on in the fields, while the covers and little woods, such 

 as those of Yelm, Guttendorf, Weitau, or whatever they are 

 called, are too small and too well watched by the keepers to 

 be used as nesting-places by these destructive marauders. 

 At this season, therefore, the predatory species are concen- 



