NOTES 
oN 
BIRDS OF PREY. 
SEPTEMBER 1883. 
——+——__ 
I wave lately bad an opportunity of devoting a little more 
attention to some of our Lower Austrian birds of prey. 
The wide plain south of the Danube, between the Wiener 
Wald and the Leitha mountains, is inhabited by large num- 
bers of many species of raptorial birds, and since May of the 
present year I have been able to pay frequent visits to the 
fields and heaths that lie between Laxenburg, Velm, Him- 
berg, and Lanzendorf. 
In May and June I saw but few hawks, only some Marsh- 
Harriers (Circus eruginosus) and Montagu’s Harriers (C. cine- 
raceus), and even these were but sparsely distributed. It isnot 
difficult to see the reason of this: there is a great deal of work 
going on in the fields, while the covers and little woods, such 
as those of Velm, Guttendorf, Weitau, or whatever they are 
called, are too small and too well watched by the keepers to 
be used as nesting-places by these destructive marauders. 
At this season, therefore, the predatory species are concen- 
