Blood-collections 
Serum samples were only collected on four days March 19-225 1968 
because the technician was urgently needed for an unexpectedly heavy 
volume of work in Cyprus, A total of 42 blood samples from 67 in¬ 
dividuals of 11 species of birds were collected and sent to YARTJ for 
processing. No virus was isolated from any of these samples. 
Specimen collections 
I 
During the two years in Israel 702 reference specimens of mi- 
t 
grants and residents were collected for the Smithsonian collections. 
These included 298 study skins, 155 skeletons and 249 alcoholic specimens, 
Anong the more important specimens collected were one wintering Anthus 
trividlis (first winter record for Israel), six Carpodaous erythrinus 
(no previous Israel records), 2 Fioedula parva (rarely recorded migrant), 
1 Sylvia nana (a rare resident in Israel) 3 Erribeviza vutila (no 
previous Israel records), and a photograph of 2 Charadrius asiatious 
(second sighting in Israel). Mr. Peterson will author a note on these 
new and unusual records. 
Final Comments 
Considerable recovery problems are encountered in bird banding 
in a state surrounded by hostile neighbors. It is probably impossible 
to recover Israel bands from natives in any of the surrounding Arab 
countries. The few bands reported found in Egypt were recovered by 
the PMS. In order to remedy this situation the Israel banders requested 
a central reporting station and return address in Europe (eg. Paris) 
but were turned down by Euring which did not want to hurt its relations 
with Arab collaborators. 
144 
