5808 Notes of a 



tolerably tame, and in general little heeded my proximity. They are 

 somewhat larger than our fallow deer, but by no means so orna- 

 mental, either in form or colour, and much less graceful, while their 

 uniform mouse-colour gives them an uninteresting sameness as con- 

 trasted with the elegant spotted denizens of our British parks. In 

 the evening they are called by the sound of a horn, at which signal 

 they assemble, and are fed and housed for the night. I have seen 

 one of these animals take the water, and swim over the large arm 

 of the Danube before a steamer, his antlered head appearing above 

 the surface of the stream, exciting the liveliest sympathy among the 

 kind-hearted Germans, who watched him w T ith the utmost eagerness, 

 exclaiming, " Das ist doch interessant ! Armes Thier ! " &c. 



The Prater is, however, in some places, subject to the general law 

 of exclusion, which is rendering some of our own woods so difficult of 

 access. In more than one place my wandering feet have been arrested 

 by the appearance of an ominous board, inscribed in German, French 

 and English, to the effect that " By supreme authority no one is 

 allowed to walk, ride or drive any further in this direction." 



In Vienna there is not, as in some southern capitals, a bird-market 

 to resort to, where the naturalist may, at his leisure, examine an 

 array of ornithological specimens, and discover the Fauna of the 

 country concentrated in the space of a few square yards. There are 

 plenty of capercailzies from Steyermark, pheasants from Bohemia, 

 partridges and the ordinary Grallse, as " plover," ruffs, &c. ; but In- 

 sessores there are none to be seen, although a dish of "kleine vogel " 

 is to be had in every restaurant at a moment's notice. We must, 

 therefore, repair to the fields and woods in order to find food for ob- 

 servation. But the first unusual bird which I remarked as British 

 was an inhabitant of the city. On the glacis, between the inner and 

 outer city, there are to be seen, all the winter, plenty of gray crows 

 (Corvus comix), feeding upon the heaps of refuse which, in certain 

 parts of the glacis, are suffered to accumulate. About these heaps, 

 and wherever that filthy stream the Wien (from which the city takes 

 its name) meanders, the Royston crows may be seen very busily en- 

 gaged. They go in pairs, or at most three or four together, and are 

 far tamer than the rooks are with us, not at all heeding the passing and 

 repassing of passengers among them all day long. These gray crows, 

 too, are common in the vicinity of the city, and indeed exist there to 

 the total exclusion of the rooks. I never saw a rook all the while I 

 was residing in the city, and remarked the fact, feeling disposed 

 to believe that their more powerful congeners kept them out of their 



