614: NOTES FROM THE 
Ii. 
DECEMBER 18885. 
—+—__ 
Durine 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-Hagles 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 
