Vig Károly: Zoological Research in Western Hungary. A history (Szombathely, 2003)
192 Phylum Vertebrata Evidence for the affection held for birds by Hungarians appears in a journal of that period (GENSILI and SYDENHAM):'On April 18, 1713... frozen storks and rooks were found in the fields; some people attempted to feed the fowl that arrived.' ISTVÁN CSAPODY (1956) quoted from an interesting petition, which Alderman LORENZ OFNER put before Sopron Town Council on May 23, 1838, to forbid bird-catching (Vogelfang). 48 Councillor LŐBL found the submission to be correct and recommended that the council should ban the capture and sale of songbirds, especially goldfinches, siskins, various titmice, nightingales and quails in the gardens, orchards and open meadows and forests of the town. On June 11, the Magistracy endorsed the submission with some slight amendments and made songbird catching liable to heavy penalties. Interestingly, the order was read out each year in the town's schools. The field guards and gamekeepers were instructed to enforce it. The first tentative steps towards the protection of animals in Hungary were made about 1845, but organized animal-protection societies did not emerge until much before the turn of the 20th century. Such a society was organized quite early in Sopron, where Postmaster MIKLÓS KRUMP set up a bird-protection branch in 1898. 49 This became a separate society in 1900, with 297 foundermembers. The members did useful and varied work in spreading the ideas of nature protection and defending songbirds. 50 The society's activity was interrupted by the First World War and it did not easily recover. In 1920, it merged into the Town Beautification Society as a separate specialist department. However, Mrs ISTVÁN BALASSA began to be active in 1934, gaining the kind of prestige for the department that the society had enjoyed earlier. From 1937 to 1944, it published the country's first environmentalist periodical, entitled Nature and Animal Protection. 51 This carried many valuable articles. 52 There were many excellent ornithologists in and around Sopron, whose activity and writings area almost impossible to summarize. The account that follows takes the research findings person by person where possible, and then gathers the writings about the individual species. LÁSZLÓ SZABÓ (1912) published the occurrence of the woodchat shrike (Lanius senator) in Sopron. OSZKÁR ZÁDOR (1958) observed that mountain species 48 Soproni Levéltár (Sopron Archives), V. 9319. 49 THIRRING, G. 1939. A régi "Soproni Állatvédő Egyesület" történetéből (History of the old Sopron Animal Protection Society). Természet- és Állatvédelem 3:6. 50 MAYER, Z. 1928. Sopron és a madárvédelem (Sopron and bird protection). Soproni Hírlap 14 (471), February 26. 51 Természet- és Állatvédelem. See CSATKAI, E. 1929. A Soproni Városszépítő Egyesület évkönyve (1869-1929) (Yearbook of the Sopron Town Beautification Society). Sopron. 52 BENEDEK, V. 1939. Természeti kincsek bitangolása (Erosion of natural treasures). Természet- és Állatvédelem 3:2-3; BREUER 1937b; CSATKAY, E. 1937. Állatvédelem a soproni és sopronkörnyéki céhekben (Animal protection in the Sopron and Sopron district gilds). Természet- és Állatvédelem 1:7; TASCH, P. 1937. Kihalt madárvilág (Extinct bird-life). Természet- és Állatvédelem 1:1-2; VARGA, L. 1937. A természet és az ember (Nature and mankind). Természet- és Állatvédelem 1:2-4.
