651 
Ornithology of Cyprus. 
no doubt scattered over the country, and only occasionally 
were a few seen. Of about a dozen Sand-Grouse which I 
handled all were of this species. Mr. Baxendale sent his 
three live birds to Major Boyd Horsbrugh, by whom they 
were deposited in the London Zoological Gardens. 
911. Phasianus colchicus Linn. 
In my previous notes in this Journal I mentioned our 
attempt to re-introduce the Pheasant. We divided our 
twenty-eight birds into two lots—one under the care of 
Mr. Barrett at the Athalassa farm near Nicosia, and the 
rest in Mr. T. Greenwood^ aviaries at Larnaca. To the 
first lot a sad disaster happened, as in the spring, owing to 
the carelessness of a servant, a door of one of the pens was 
left ajar, and a fox got in and killed all except one cock and 
one hen, which escaped into the plantations. I turned out 
there another hen, as the cock was frequently seen again. 
Mr. Greenwood was very successful, and had far more 
eggs than he could deal with : he reared some sixty birds. 
The early broods did very well, but those hatched in May 
remained stunted and dwarfed by the great heat of the 
summer, and only attained full growth when about eight 
months old. We turned out a number of birds high up on 
the Troodos range in February this year, and others in one 
of the game-reserved areas. It is too early yet to say how 
they will eventually fare, but we know that some of the 
hens are sitting on eggs in the woods. 
958. Coturnix communis Bonnaterre. 
I found that the Quail breeds fairly freely in the barley, 
and I had eggs in early April from several different localities, 
I can often hear its nice little note all night from my 
bedroom window. 
984. Rallus aquaticus Linn, 
The Water-Rail we find to be a very common winter 
visitor from the beginning of October till the middle of 
March in all suitable localities. I had notes of quite thirty 
examples being shot last winter. 
