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

184 Phylum Vertebrata 19th century (UHLIG 1896). The species is a regular breeder and migrant in the region. The corncrake (Crex crex) was still a frequent breeder in the Hanság in the 1970s, but it had practically disappeared by the 1990s (FÜLÖP 1999). A few pairs have bred in the Hanság and the Fertő district in the wettest years of the last decade (PELLINGER and SOPRONI 1999). Some authors think that the crane (Grus grus) may have nested in the Hanság in 1910 (SCHENK 1938b; STUDINKA 1935a), but it was certainly much more abundant towards the end of the 19th century than it is today (BREUER 1950a; SMUK 1954). Occurrences of the little bustard (Tetrax tetrax) in the Fertő district were related by ANTAL FESTETICS (1962). The Little Plain (Kisalföld) marks the border of the western area for the indigenous spp. orientális, so that Fertő and the Hanság are staging posts on the way to the Austrian and Csallóköz (Zitny Ostrov) breeding grounds (STERBETZ 1996). Observations in the former places provide indirect evidence of breeding in the latter. The occurrence of the little bustard on September 21, 1980 was the 15th known in the district, of which 10 were within Hungary's present-day borders. The Hanság occurrences of the species were summed up by SÁNDOR FARAGÓ (1981b and 1982a), who also gave occurrence data for the Fertő district and provided a map. Some 100-120 pairs of the great bustard (Otis tarda) were nesting in the Hanság in the 1930s (STUDINKA 1935a). SÁNDOR FARAGÓ (19 8 Od) gave the results of a synchronized Austro-Hungarian count of the 140-150 pairs in the Hanság at the end of the 1970s. In the 1980s and early 1990s, only a handful of pairs were breeding regularly in the district. By the end of the 1990s, it had practically disappeared as a breeding species and only a few crying cocks could be found (FARAGÓ 1982b and 1985). The population was strongly reduced by the cold winter of 1987-8, when weakened bustards from the West Hungarian border region were found between Sopronkőhida and Balf, but too late to save them (FARAGÓ 1988b). A parasitological examination of the Sopronkőhida specimen showed the presence of ten specimens of Hymenolepis villosa, which is a common parasite of the species, although not specific to it. An ecological survey of the bustard population that once lived by Fertő was conducted by L. LUKSCHANDLERL (1971). These days, Fertő is home to only a few vagrants of the species. The black-winged stilt (Himantopus himantopus) bred regularly at the end of the 19th century in Sarród Marsh on the south-east shore of Fertő, but it disappeared from the Hungarian part of the lake when the marsh was drained. It bred nine times between 1939 and 1991 in the Austrian Seewinkel. The population in the Carpathian Basin began to increase encouragingly in the 1990s after a long period of decline. It appeared and bred successfully at several places in Transdanubia, including the Hungarian side of Fertő, on the Mekszikópuszta flood plains (PELLINGER 1995a). There had only been one record of the species breeding in the Hanság (FÜLÖP 1993b), but it has now moved into a habitat-reconstruction at Nyirkai-Hany, Bősárkány, where seven pairs bred in the first year (PELLINGER 2001a).