394 Mr. J. A. Buckuill on the 



March and April — is over, huge numbers of birds of this 

 Family may be observed on the larger sheets of water. In 

 the spring these winter residents, joining ranks again with 

 the army now moving north, soon disappear, and in June, 

 July and August it would puzzle most people to find a single 

 Duck in the island. It may seem remarkable that so very 

 few remain during the summer, but the fact is that there 

 are no very suitable localities for Ducks to breed in; the 

 freshwater reservoirs and lakes are, as a rule, dry, either from 

 drainage off of the water or from natural causes, and their 

 banks are bare and afford little, if any, suitable cover ; the salt- 

 lakes are no better than a slush of brine, and the streams, 

 with very few exceptions, are exhausted or diverted at the 

 higher levels for domestic or agricultural purposes. An 

 interesting document kindly placed at my disposal by Mr. 

 Michell, the Commissioner of Limassol, well exemplifies the 

 disappearance of water-fowl in summer : it is a daily record 

 for nearly a year (from March lOth-November 20th, 1908) of 

 the birds observed at the great Limassol salt-lake, kept, at 

 request, by the salt-guard, an intelligent Cypriote minor 

 official. Out of hundreds of entries, most of which relate to 

 Swans, Geese, Ducks, and Cranes, the last summer note is 

 on June 8th " a very few ducks/' and from thence onward, 

 with the one exception of July 18th, " four ducks," there is 

 no record of any of the Anatidae until September 18th when 

 "ducks" again appear in the journal, and continue daily 

 to the conclusion of the diary. 



Some of the local Greek names used by this official — 

 the record being kept in Greek — are rather unintelligible, 

 but "TJairripes" " Ba P j3a P 6 X V^/' " Tepavoi," ""Emires," 

 " KovftovSe?;' "OpTUKia," " Tle/caT^ves," and " MeXiaao- 

 (pujoi" are easily recognisable as "Ducks/' "Wild Geese," 

 " Cranes," " Hoopoes," " Wild Swans," " Quails" "Snipe," 

 and " Bee-eaters." 



Notwithstanding the great abundance of the Duck tribe 

 in winter, definite records of the rarer species have been, 

 hitherto, meagre. Sibthorp mentions the Mallard, the Gar- 

 ganey, and another species unknown to him which he called 



