Vig Károly: Zoological Research in Western Hungary. A history (Szombathely, 2003)
Phylum Vertebrata 219 don their usual haunts for unknown reasons and appear in vast flocks sometimes several thousand kilometres from their breeding grounds. They flew away from Europe, including Hungary, on several occasions in the second half of the 19th century and again in the early decades of the 20th. Flocks observed in the West Hungarian border region feature in several publications (CHERNÉL 1888b and 1888c; TSCHUSI zu SCHMIDHOFFEN 1889 and 1899b; SCHENK 1909c). They also nested by Fertő (SCHENK 1909b). In 1888, a hen shot on a stony plateau at Fertő was found to contain several developed eggs (CHERNÉL 1899). The woodchat shrike (Lanius senator) breeds in Hungary mainly in the West Hungarian border region. There are sporadic observation records (CHERNÉL 1894 and 1896b; SZABÓ 1896; TASCH 1934a and 1934b). Several records of the great grey shrike (L. excubitor) from the West Hungarian border region were published by LAJOS MOLNÁR (1982C, 1982d and 1984e), who gave a similar account of observations of the merlin (Falco columbarius —MOLNÁR 1986) and of 1982 data for the greenshank (Tringa nebularia —MOLNÁR 1984c) and green sandpiper (Г. ochropus —MOLNÁR 1984d). Hungarian occurrences of the great grey shrike (L. excubitor) between 1974 and 1984 were summarized by PÁL ANDRÉSI (1988), in connection with an observation made on December 16, 1984 by Tómalom in Sopron. The first observation of breeding in Hungary by the species was made by Fertő in June 2000 (LÁSZLÓ KÁRPÁTI, personal communication). The Syrian woodpecker (Dendrocopos syriacus) appeared in Hungary in the 1930s and spread rapidly across the country (LUGITSCH 1951b; CSABA 1955b; KEVE 1955a). The same applies to the collared dove (Streptopelia decaocto), which was first seen here in the 1930s and settled with great speed across the whole country, becoming a permanent breeder here. Its spread in the West Hungarian border region can be followed in the observation records (SASSI 1938; SOLYMOSY 1939C; CSABA 1940b; BÁRÁNY 1941; BARANYOVITS 1942; KEVE 1950b and 1950c; KEVEKLEINER 1943a). However, the numbers seem to have begun to fall again in the 1980s, when it began to disappear from parks in the Sopron area (KÁRPÁTI 1984a). Much the same can be said of the house sparrow (Passer domesticus), where numbers have fallen sharply in villages where the scale of livestock farming has declined and nesting habits have changed (KÁRPÁTI 1984a). The grasshopper warbler (Locustella naevia) and river warbler (L. fluviatilis) can be seen with increasing frequency in felled areas of hillside, especially in areas overgrown with brush or bushgrass (Calamagrostis epigeios) or young woodland dotted with clearings (ANON. 1980a; KÁRPÁTI 1984a). Similar experiences apply to the grasshopper warbler in the higher stretches of the Kőszeg Hills (Hörmann Spring, Vörös kereszt), observed by LÁSZLÓ VARGA (1985) and in the Sopron Hills, observed by ZSOLT VARGA (1989). The mute swan (Cygnus olor) has been spreading intensively in Hungary. The records up to 1979 were summarized by JÓZSEF CSABA (1979b). The bird counted as a rare winter visitor in the mid-19th century. The first specimen in the region was probably observed by LAJOS MOLNÁR on December 21, 1892, on the Molnaszecsőd
