Vig Károly: Zoological Research in Western Hungary. A history (Szombathely, 2003)

46 Historical survey the traveller and curator of the Hungarian National Museum, who presented 40 skins of birds. It is also thought that the insect and plant collection of ISTVÁN AMBRÓZY-MIGAZZI also went to the school. As LAJOS AMBRÓZY explained in an account of his kinsman's life and work, 'He already collected butterflies and beetles in his youth, and gathered a herbarium in which he industriously accumulated the plants of Tana, Gyöngyösapáti, Vörösvár (Rotenturm an der Pinka) and Somogytarnóca over many years.'

139 Unfortunately, most of the prepared specimens and collections have disappeared or been destroyed over the years, probably including the AMBRÓZY collections. Except with a few items, it is no longer possible to say what came to the grammar school from which source, so that ERNŐ CSIGAHÁZY'S inventory has little import from the faunistic point of view, despite its interest to historians of science (Figure 2.28). The zoological chapter in the monograph Vas County, edited by the celebrated SAMU BOROVSZKY, was written by JÓZSEF JABLONOWSKI (1898). He began by apologizing for giving an incomplete picture of the county's fauna: 'Apart from a few sporadic data, we hardly know what lives in Vas County... So, before giving any picture of the animal kingdom in the county, I have to declare that the picture is incomplete. I know Vas County well; I have made collections myself in several districts, so that I am well acquainted with its rich animal kingdom.' JABLONOWSKI relied, apart from his own knowledge, on the work of ADOLF KUNCZ, mentioned already, and on verbal communications from KÁLMÁN CHERNÉL. The ornithological section was written by the young ISTVÁN CHERNÉL (1898C). JABLONOWSKI was responsible for collecting spiders in the county and insects considered to be agricultural pests (Figure 2.29). FROM THE TURN OF THE 20TH CENTURY TO THE PRESENT DAY Addressing the Zoological Section of the Royal Hungarian Natural History Society on February 9, 1893, GÉZA HORVÁTH issued an appeal to which the turn-of-the-century generation of Hungarian zoologists soon responded with a three-volume summary of knowledge of animal life in the realm of Hungary. Fauna Regni Hungáriáé, the first such work to appear anywhere in the world, was a fitting climax to the work put in by Hungarian zoologists during the 19th century. Leafing through the distribution data for the various taxa, it becomes clear that the information from the West Hungarian border region is relatively sparse. One reason was that few people were collecting there and those few collectors were often failing to publish their findings. Furthermore, it can be shown that the editors failed to obtain all the publications about the fauna of the West Hungarian border region. Unfortunately that happened with the work that ALFONZ FREH wrote in 1878. Despite the shortcomings of 139 AMBRÓZY, L. 1933. A kertalkotó gróf Ambrózy-Migazzi István (The garden-making Count I А-М). Országos Magyar Kertészeti Egyesület Évkönyve (Yearbook of the National Hungarian Horticultural Society), 54-61. Budapest.