FOURTEENTH DAY. 217 
the morning were made. Leopold got into a boat and went 
off to the dense wood of gigantic willows which at the true 
Draueck separates both the Danube and the Drave from the 
Hullé swamp, and where the Sea-Hagle’s nest was situated 
at which the two Savants had made an unsuccessful attempt 
some days ago. 
A few minutes later Brehm, Homeyer, Bombelles, and I, 
with the jigers and Hodek’s crew, also quitted the steamer in 
the ‘Vienna,’ and leaving the Danube rowed up a side 
channel to a keeper’s house. 
A belt of trees, so narrow that one could everywhere see 
through it, ran between the right bank of this arm of the 
river and the Hullé marsh, and on the left it was separated 
from the main stream by a much-flooded island walled-in by 
reeds and covered with a wild tangle of woods, 
The keeper’s house stood upon an artificial mound raised to 
protect it from the great inundations, and the aforesaid strip 
of wood stretched up to and beyond it; but being somewhat 
above the level of the marsh it was, at this spring season of 
the year, only partially submerged. Nevertheless we could 
not reach the house altogether dryshod, and its inmates 
could only communicate with the rest of the world by boat. 
Singularly enough, we found great numbers of Starlings 
in this watery wilderness; for this tame bird seems to affect 
the companionship of man and follows him into the most 
out-of-the-way places. The trees surrounding this solitary 
dwelling were thickly peopled with them, while Falcons and 
Kites were circling over the water, and Crows and Herons 
were leisurely winging their way from wood to wood ; but, 
unfortunately, our time was short, and we had to hasten on 
towards the interior of the marsh. 
On rowing round the keeper’s house we at once saw that 
it would be impossible to get the large ‘ Vienna’ across the 
shallows under the trees between us and the swamp; so 
