BREEDING- COLONIES. 
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many as five, six, and sometimes ten nests on one fir, 
some touching even. The ground under the trees is so 
thoroughly encrusted with their dung as to destroy all 
vegetation, except the trees themselves. The old birds 
when scared form a regular black cloud, and their screams 
are a perfect trial to one's nerves. 
Colonies of Crows and Swallows, consisting as they do 
of only a single species, are far less extensive than similar 
assemblages in the south-east or north of Europe, which are 
composed of several different sorts. All travellers in the 
countries bordering on the Danube speak with enthusiasm 
of the heronries of Southern Hungary, and declare, one 
and all, that it is utterly impossible to give even an 
approximate description of bird-life in the swamps of the 
Danube during breeding time. Almost all the Herons of 
Europe may be found collected in Hungary in the spring, 
and among them Avocets, Curlews, Cormorants, Ducks, 
Terns, Gulls, and various Birds of Prey. Hundreds, aye 
thousands, may be found packed together on the small 
clumps of trees growing in the swamps or on the islands ; 
it seems as though every class of bird was there repre¬ 
sented. “ A sight more varied, charming, or beautiful," 
says Baldamus, “ would be hard to find than these Hun¬ 
garian marshes with their feathered inhabitants, which 
are as remarkable for the different individual habits of 
each species as for the diversity of their form and plumage. 
Observe the most striking members of this community of 
Marsh- and Water-birds, and conceive for a moment 
these snow-white, straw-coloured, gray, black, prismatic, 
gold and purple, these green- and red-headed, crested, 
eared, long- and short-legged creatures, standing, stalking, 
running, climbing, swimming, diving, flying; in short, 
living masses, striking in shape and colour, standing out in 
