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

174 Phylum Vertebrata Figure 14.2. ISTVÁN CHERNÉL showed as a young birdwatcher the talent and knowledge that would mark him as a scientist The young István CHERNÉL (Figure 14.2) began to visit Fertő regularly in 1880. After completing university, he complied with his father's wishes and became a local-government officer in Sopron, but in 1889, he resigned and returned to Kőszeg. His data from the Fertő, Hanság and Sopron districts have been compared with the present situation by ATTILA PELLINGER (2002). ALEXANDER HOMEYER included Fertő and the Hanság in his travels round Hungary (Figure 14.3) and Transylvania in 1892 and began to publish an account in the same year (HOMEYER 1892-3). TIVADAR ORTVAY (1902) included many data from Fertő in a weighty study of the animal kingdom in Pozsony County. VIKTOR RAPPENSBERGER (1904) devoted a study to the lake and its environs. The ornithological data on the district were also familiar to ADOLF LENDL (1895, 1896 and 1897). GYULA MADARÁSZ (1899c) wrote in an article about the occurrence of the lesser blackbacked gull (Larus fuscus) at Fertő, which SCHMIDHOFFEN TscHusi (1899a) also mentioned in a response. LAJOS ELEMÉR SZALAY (1908) noted that tufted duck (Aythya fuligula) were summer visitors to the lake, while GYULA EGERVÁRY (1909) described observations of the great white egret (Egretta alba) on the edge of Fertőmeggyes (Mörbisch am See). In the spring of 1890, OTTÓ HERMAN led three months of observations at Fertő as well, when the two observers were ISTVÁN FÁSZL and GYULA MADARÁSZ. MADARÁSZ gave the geographical coordinates of Hegykő as his location, but he was probably just staying there and made his observations along the southeast shores between Hidegség and Mosonbánfalva (Figure 14.4). ISTVÁN FÁSZL had died in 1900, but it was not until 1906 that JAKAB VÖNÖCZKY-SCHENK took up his task, researching Fertő until 1909. The findings he published (SCHENK 1917a) were the most detailed report since that of ANTAL JUKOVITS. JAKAB VÖNÖCZKY-SCHENK (18761945)

32 was born in Óverbász (Stari Vrbas), where he gained a lifelong affection for birds in the reeds along the Ferenc Canal, near his family estate. While 32 CSÖRGEY, T. 1947. Vönöczky-Schenk Jakab kísérletügyi főigazgató, a Madártani Intézet vezetője... 1876-1945 (JV-S, experimental director and head of the Ornithological Institute). Aquila (1944-7) 51-4:42-5; KEVE, A. 1961. Vönöczky-Schenk Jakab (In memory of JV-S). Állattani Közlemények 48:5-7.