540 FROM NORTH POLE TO EQUATOR. 



Answers to these questions can be given by all who are ac- 

 quainted with our penal institutions. 



If the unhappy lot of our criminals be compared, honestly and 

 without prejudice, with that of the exiles in Siberia, the result will 

 not be doubtful. Every true friend of humanity must echo the 

 wish which came to me in the distant East, and which has never 

 since left me: 



"If only we had a Siberia too: it would be better for our crimi- 

 nals, and better for ourselves ". 



AN OENITHOLOGIST ON THE DANUBE. 



Hungary was, and is, and will continue to be one of the goals 

 of the German ornithologist's ambition. Situated more favourably 

 than any other country in Europe, lying as it does between the 

 North Sea and the Black Sea, the Baltic and the Mediterranean, the 

 great northern plain and the Alps including within its boundaries 

 both the North and the South, steppes and mountains, forests, rivers, 

 and marshes it offers great advantages and attractions to resident 

 and wandering birds alike, and thus possesses a richer bird-fauna 

 perhaps than any other country in our quarter of the globe. 

 Enthusiastic descriptions of this wealth, from the pen of our most 

 illustrious investigators and masters, have contributed not a little 

 to increase and strengthen the longing I would almost call it 

 inborn that all the bird-lovers of Germany have to see Hungary. 

 It is strange, however, that this beautiful, rich country, lying so 

 near to us, has been so rarely visited by Germans. 



I myself had seen only its capital and what one can see of the 

 country from the railway; I therefore shared most thoroughly 

 in the longing of which I have just spoken. It was to be fulfilled, 

 but only to return even more ardently thereafter. " None walks 

 unpunished beneath the palms ", and no lover of birds can spend 

 May-tide in Fruskagora without having for ever after a longing to 

 return. 



