632 
Mr. J. A. Bucknill on the 
XXVI .—A Further Contribution to the Ornithology of Cyprus. 
By John A. Bucknill, M.A., F.Z.S., M.B.O.U.* 
I was again stationed in- Cyprus in'1910 and up to the 
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 very 
wet : the rains continued until late, with the result that 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, Shoveler, 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 offered for a specimen. Little Bustards, Golden 
Plovers, and Woodcocks 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.—The numbers prefixed to the names are 
those of Dresser’s ‘ Manual of Palsearctic Birds.’ 
