Lake Akrotiri after breeding and does not appear again until the follow- 
ing April. Similarly, I have looked for Dead Sea Sparrows in Israel in 
October and, apart from one small flock in the Hula Reserve, failed to 
find any after a very extensive search over the whole of Israel. It appears 
in reasonable numbers in Eilat from January to April, according to 
reports from the ringing station. Otherwise, apart from a few isolated 
records outside the breeding season, its whereabouts do not appear to be 
known. 
It is now a fairly common bird in Israel, and I find it unlikely that it could 
be overlooked if substantial numbers remained; however, enquiries to 
Mike Jennings have drawn a blank, and John Ash makes no mention of 
it in his extensive study of Ethiopia. Where do they go? 
Nothing seems to be published about the extensive breeding population 
in Turkey. Are they resident, or do they move into the Tigris-Euphrates 
valley, where they could well pass unnoticed and unrecorded? Could 
the latter be a wintering place for the Israeli birds? 
Oddly enough, much more is known about the wintering behaviour of 
the middle Asian population, P. moahiticus yatii, that breeds in Sistan and 
moves in winter both south to Baluchistan and north in small numbers 
up the Farad Rud. 
If anyone can throw any light on any of these questions, I would greatly 
appreciate their writing to me. 
/ Denis Summers-Smith, Merlewood, The Avenue, Guisborough, 
Cleveland TS14 SEE, England 
26 
