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

204 Phylum Vertebrata Figure 14.10. ISTVÁN BECHTOLD (1927-1991), one of the great authorities on the birds of the Kőszeg Hills, seen with his favourite peregrine falcon with that of JÓZSEF CSABA (VÍG 1997a and 1999). He donated many of his prepared bird specimens to the Savaria Museum, and despite losses in the war and due to later neglect, they still form part of the museum's main collection (VIG 1997b). MOLNÁR was the first to record the occurrence or breeding in Vas County of several species, including breeding by the woodchat shrike (Lanius senator) at Hidashollós in 1892 and by the fieldfare (Turdus pilaris) at Molnaszecsőd on May 17, 1901. He demonstrated the occurrence of the pine grosbeak (Pinicola enucleator) at Molnaszecsőd, with a specimen collected on November 10, 1928, and a rare visit by the Alpine chough (Pyrrhocorax graculus), with a specimen shot at Döröske on January 24, 1933. His published work is relatively modest (MOLNÁR 1898, 1905,1924,1929, 1930a, 1930b, 1934, 1935 and 1950). The work he left behind in manuscript, in which he charted the bird-life of the Rába district, was destroyed when the Ornithological Institute burnt down in 1945. ISTVÁN BECHTOLD (1927-1991) (Figure 14.10) studied the bird-life of the Kőszeg district and Kőszeg Hills. He recorded his ornithological and meteorological observations in fat notebooks now preserved in Kőszeg Town Museum. He was the first to report the occurrence in the district of the three-toed woodpecker (Picoides tridactylus

—BECHTOLD 1975a and 1975d)

85 and the eagle owl (Bubo bubo

—BECHTOLD 1987). He discovered the breeding of the black stork (Ciconia nigra) at Kőszeg (BECHTOLD 1970a) and observed the golden eagle 85 Nonetheless, the occurrence of Picoides tridactylus in Hungary is not certified and the species does not feature in the national bird-species register (HARASZTHY 1998; MAGYAR et al. 1998).