604 NOTES FROM THE 



Both the Swallows and the Martins had almost entirely 

 departed by the middle and end of September, but I still saw 

 some of the former on October llth, and observed one of the 

 latter flying up the Danube on the 15th of that month. The 

 Woodcock (Scolopax rusticola) came this year in very small 

 numbers, the first having been seen on the auen of the Danube 

 at Vienna in the middle of September, and solitary individuals 

 are even still to be met with here and there. This year there 

 was a great flight of Redwings and Song-Thrushes, but it 

 only lasted a few days, the greatest number being seen between 

 October 7th and 15th. 



The Mallards collected early in large flocks, for at the end of 

 September I already noticed numbers of them on the Laxen- 

 burg pond, and on the Danube they were exceptionally 

 abundant. 



The Geese, but only one species, came to the Danube in the 

 beginning of October, and during the day thousands of them 

 pitched on the sandbanks by the so-called Schonauer Wasser, 

 opposite the village of Schonau. On the 15th of October, 

 which was a grey, misty, rainy, and particularly favourable 

 day, I there observed countless myriads, gigantic swarms of 

 them, between eleven and three o'clock. They all came from 

 the north-west, and settled on the sluices and the sand- 

 banks with a loud cackling. Their migration lasted until the 

 end of October, but their numbers had then much decreased. 



The Shoveller (Anas clypeata) has also often been met 

 with since the beginning of the present month, and on the 

 15th the first Eed-throated Diver (Colymlus septentrionalis) 

 was seen, while a young Crested Grebe was killed on an arm 

 of the river. The various kinds of Sandpipers, of which there 

 were large numbers on the Danube at the end of September, 

 have already departed. 



The Black-headed Gull (Larus ridibundus) appeared in 

 great abundance at the end of last month, and they are still 



