212 Dr. F. H. H. Guillemard— Cijprus 



horse^ combined with a loose seat on my part, brought the 

 butt of the weapon in contact with his quarters. I was un- 

 aware that anything had occurred, but on reaching home found 

 that the stock was broken right through at the grip. I was 

 debating what sort of job I could make of it by splicing it 

 with raw hide, as I have seen done in South Africa, when I was 

 told of a certain little Persian in the bazaars whose skill as a 

 gunsmith was such as to lead to suspicions as to his fate in 

 another world. My experience rather tended to confirm 

 them, for he turned mc out a new gun-stock which fitted in 

 a manner that would not have disgraced a London gun- 

 maker. 



This accident hindered collecting to some extent, bat after 

 having tried in vain ever since my arrival, I at last succeeded 

 in getting a " hunter " to shoot for me, one Elias, a battered- 

 looking Greek, whose face possessed the colour and polish of 

 a copper tea-kettle. This individual was lazy enough, but he 

 had all the instincts of a hunter, and would make nothing of 

 squatting through the night in the wet reeds for ducks, an 

 example which, in the not too healthy Famagusta marshes, 

 I was by no means desirous of following. The enormous 

 number of ducks and the presence of a narrow neck of land 

 between the lake and the sea induced me to try flight-shoot- 

 ing on one or two occasions, but without much success. The 

 mouth of the Pedias river near Salamis afforded me Totunus 

 ochropus and Alcedo isjnda, neither of which I had shot on 

 my first visit, and from the bazaars I got a live Peregrine, 

 the beak of which had been ri\thlessly deprived of its point, 

 and its beauty thereby entirely spoilt. 



I moved on the 26th of February to Kuklia, a village on 

 the road between Nikosia and Famagusta, where there is a 

 marsh of some extent ; next day I tried it. Snipes were 

 fairly plentiful, and I saw Cypselus apus and C. melba for the 

 first time. The Swallows had by this time all arrived, and 

 were skimming over the marsh in hundreds. I got both 

 Pintails and Shovellers here, and the " shoot-man," as my 

 servant always called him, brought me a number of Starlings, 

 Avhich tvirned out to be Sturnus purpurascens. These birds 



