560 ORNITHOLOGICAL SKETCHES 
(Alauda cristata), were all the birds I observed, for the 
speed at which we were travelling of course prevented my 
detecting the smaller species. On getting further south, 
where marshes run through broad valleys bounded by prettily 
wooded ‘hills, I noticed a few White Storks (Ciconia alba), one 
Purple Heron (Ardea purpurea), several Larger Spotted 
Eagles (Aquila clanga), and the above-mentioned Eagles, but 
more rarely than before. 
The plain of Hatszeg, which was the immediate goal of our 
journey, is perfectly flat, damp, thickly clothed with vegeta- 
tion, and intersected by numerous watercourses. On three 
sides it is surrounded by low but very steep hills, poorly 
wooded with stunted oaks, and quite bare in parts; but on 
the fourth the great mountains of the Transylvanian Alps, 
and in particular the splendid Retyézat, rise abruptly from 
the plain and form an imposing background. 
I was obliged to hurry through this plain, which doubtless 
contains much that is worthy of attention, for time was 
pressing, and I had to go up into the mountains. My rapidly 
collected notes can therefore be by no means considered as 
exhaustive. 
Such very common birds as Sparrows, Larks, Swallows, 
Common Buntings, White Wagtails, &c. were extremely 
abundant; but I unfortunately could not devote myself to the 
numerous and probably interesting small species with which 
the luxuriant meadows and field-woods of this little-known 
district are doubtless stocked. 
At the castle where we lived I found a pair of Lesser 
Kestrels (Falco cenchris), and every evening there was an 
assemblage of Magpies in the garden such as I had never 
before seen. For a whole half-hour they came flying up to the 
thick bushes from all sides, arriving singly but in uninter- 
rupted succession, and soon hundreds were congregated 
within a small space of not more than a hundred yards long 
