632 Mr. J. A. Bucknill un the 



XXVI. — A Further Contribution to the Ornithology of Cyinus. 

 By John A. Bucknill, M.A., F.Z.S., M.B.O.U.^ 



I WAS again stationed in Cyprus in 1910 and up to tlie 

 time of writing this in 1911 (May), and was consequently 

 enabled to accumulate a good deal more information about 

 the island's avifauna. 



Several circumstances combined to make the period excep- 

 tionally interesting. First, the spring of 1910 was A^ery 

 ■wet : the rains continued until late, with the result tliat some 

 of the lakes and reservoirs remained more or less supplied 

 ■with water throughout the summer — of which circumstance 

 many interesting species of birds took advantage and 

 stayed to nest. The Great Crested Grebe, Dabchick, Coot, 

 Moorhen, Lesser Tern, Garganey, Shovelcr, Tufted Duck, 

 Marbled Duck, and Kentish Plover were amongst this class. 

 Secondly, the winter of 1910-11, for two and a half months, 

 was unprecedently severe ; snow lay at intervals in the plains, 

 and people were actually frozen to death ; no one living in 

 the island remembers such rigorous weather. The Anatolian 

 Taurus must have been ice-bound from end to end, and in 

 the Levant, Jerusalem had the unheard-of experience of being 

 under snow. All kinds of unusual ornithological visitors, 

 driven down, I presume, from the north, crowded into the 

 island. Amongst those hitherto unrecorded were the Whooper 

 Swan, White -fronted Goose, and Red-crested Pochard ; 

 Sheldrakes (Ruddy and Common), White-eyed Pochards, 

 and other usually rare Ducks were to be bought for a few 

 piastres apiece ; Great Bustards were shot, and, to our 

 horror, devoured by a station-master, who was unaware of 

 our gold oifered for a specimen. Little Bustards, Golden 

 Plovers, and W^oodcocks were abundant, and I shot twenty-six 

 Lapwings from a carriage on the drive between Nicosia and 

 Papho. Fieldfares, very rare as a rule, swarmed, and so did 

 Mistletoe-Thrushes, whilst we actually obtained a Redwing. 



* See 'Ibis,' 1910, p. 385. — Tlie numbers prefixed to the names are 

 tbose of Dresser's ' Manual of Palrearctic Birds.' 



