614 NOTES FROM THE 



III. 



DECEMBER 1885. 



DURING the autumn of 1885 I was able to make some rather 

 interesting notes. 



Most of the migratory birds either left or passed through 

 the field of my observation quite at the customary times. 

 Almost all the swallows had gone by the latter part of Septem- 

 ber. Solitary specimens of geese appeared on the Danube at 

 the end of that month, and therefore earlier than usual; but 

 the great flights, which were this year of extraordinary size, 

 came about the end of October and remained until the middle 

 of November, while some of the smaller flocks stayed up to its 

 close. The Teal, with a few Shovellers, Pochards, Garganey 

 Teal, but especially Mallards in thousands, have frequented the 

 river throughout the autumn, and have been joined since 

 the end of November by the Goosanders and Mergansers, 

 as well as by the Long-tailed Ducks, the latter in smaller 

 numbers than usual. 



In Lower Austria the Cormorants left the Danube earlier 

 than last year, but the Sea-Eagles came much sooner to their 

 winter-quarters. The first of them a young bird still in the 

 dark plumage I observed in the auen below Vienna on 

 September 24th, and during October some others arrived, 

 both old and young, and they are still flying up and down 

 the river every day hunting the ducks. 



The migration of the smaller birds of prey was also very 



