706 Letters, Extracts, and Notes. 



In the work referred to above (apparently OA^erlookcd hy 

 Major Harington) I remarked that " birds from Yunnan 

 and Upper Burma have very small bills ; on the other hand, 

 those from Formosa — as Swiuhoe pointed out (Ibis^ 1863, 

 p. 299) — are ' rather larger/ and possess 'usually more robust 

 bills/ They all agree, however, in having the back generally 

 greyer and more olivaceous than P. inornata.^^ 



I am, Sir, 

 Yours &c., 



COLLINGWOOD InGRAM. 



Westgate-on-Sen, Kent. 

 Jidj 16th, 1913. 



Sir, — In the Messaorea plain, within the Famagusta 

 District of Cyprus, and about twelve miles from the sea, 

 a large reservoir was made some few years ago near a 

 village called Kouklia, for the double purpose of draining 

 marshy land and of storing water for irrigation purposes in 

 the dry season. 



This reservoir is a large sheet of water covering an area — 

 if the rains have been normal — of about 1| square miles 

 in the spring and early summer. During the summer and 

 autumn, owing to evaporation and to the using of the water 

 for irrigation, the reservoir is of lesser extent, and in some 

 years when the winter rain is late it becomes nearly dry. 



Usually in the winter this place is the haunt of great 

 quantities of wild fowl, Grebes, and Waders, and in the 

 spring a great maiiy migratory birds rest there for a time on 

 their way to Asia Minor and further north. 



In 1909 it was known that the Podiceps niyricoJlis and 

 Podiceps fluviatilis frequented this reservoir, and the first 

 specimens of the former Grebe were obtained ; the Lesser 

 Grebe had been met with before. 



In the following year I obtained a specimen of the Great 

 Crested Grebe {Podiceps cristatus), and their eggs were 

 obtained at the same time, also the eggs of the Lesser Grebe. 

 No eggs of the Eared Grebe, however, were found. 



