Boros István (szerk.): A Magyar Természettudományi Múzeum évkönyve 4. (Budapest 1952)
Horváth, L.: The ornis of the Mecsek Mountains based on oecologic and oologic researches
ï had to include four species enumerated by A g á r d i as observed in the Mecsek, because I was not able to find them even during ten years. These birds are the Wood Lark, the Willow Warbler, the Ring-ouzel, and the Booted Eagle. Their more detailed data will be found in the main part of this paper. In the cases of the other two exceptions Í am prompted by professional ethics. Namely, I have not been able to independently find four other species (the Honey-buzzard, the Collared Flycatcher, the Red-breasted Flycatcher, and the Lesser Whitethroat) but only by acting on the kind information of Szilárd Cseresnyés and Tamás Vándor. Let me express my gratitude also here and now. In the main part I will, repeatedly mentioning their names, disclose the results of our individual and mutual observations. The Mecsek Mountains rise in the Southeastern Transdanubium. From an ornithologie point of view only its orographic conception may come into consideration. Its precise delineation is as follows : Szentlőrinc, — Pécs, — Pécsvárad,— Püspöknádasd, — Váralja,— Máza, — Szászvár, — Kárász, — Magyaregregy, — Komló, — Pécsbudafa, — Mánfa, — Orfű, — Abaliget, — Hettyehely, — Bükkösd, Szentlőrinc. The following villages are situated in the Mountains : Obánya, Kisújbánya, and Püspökszentlászló ; and also the farms : Zobák, Árpádtető, Vágót, and Petőc. The city of Pécs settled on the outern slopes of the Mecsek counts as belonging to the Mecsek insofar only as it extends up on the main slopes ; again, only those data are included which were obtained in agricultural terrains of Pécs and other settlements spreading over the inclinations of the Mountains. The Western Mecsek is naturally the western part of the Mountains extending to the Pécs— Abaliget highway. It is characterized by the Jakabhegy with its 602 meters altitude above sea level. The Pécsi Mecsek is the part falling between above highway and the one connecting Pécs and Mánfa, charaterized by the Tubes-Misina ridge, its highest point reaching an altitude of 612 meters a. s. I. The Middle Mecsek reaches from the Pécs—Mánfa highway to the Hosszúhetény— Magyaregregy highway. This is a relatively lower territory with varying flat mountains and shallow valleys, hilly, of an almost uniform altitude. The Eastern Mecsek is the highest, most massive, and almost regularly circular part of the Mountains, its centre being the Kisújbánya Cigányhegy, with the highest altitude of the Zengővár (682 m. a. s. 1.), and the peaks of the Hánnashegy, Dobogó, Somlyó reaching also over 600 meters. Owing to the fact that the average altitude of the Mountains attain only 200—250 meters above the Baranya Plains, no regional separation of the ornis can be shown. Its qualitative and quantitative distribution is chiefly determined by the hydrographie and floristic relations : so any accurate discussion will depend on these facts. There are many permanent springs and brooks in the Mountains : this is one explanation of the rather rich ornis. Another favourable circumstance for birdlife is the extensive culture of orchards and vineyards on the outern and lower slopes of the Mecsek ; and that the age and quality of the woods and also their undergrowth show a great diversity and a favourable distribution. 1 do not hold it important to give a detailed description of the distribution of the rivulets and the age of the species of the trees in the various woods in advance, as later, when touching on the diverse habitats and the description of the birdspecies, I shall have necessarily to discuss them. The ornis of the Mecsek Mountains may be classified into eight well definable habitats. The birds relegated to them live and breed primarily in these habitats ; though, naturally, owing to their large moving capacity and the rather big adaptive
