394 
Mr. J. A. Buckuill on the 
March and April—is over, huge numbers of birds o£ this 
Family may be observed on the larger sheets of water. In 
the spring these winter residents, joining ranks again with 
the army now moving north, soon disappear, and in June, 
July and August it would puzzle most people to find a single 
Duck in the island. It may seem remarkable that so very 
few remain during the summer, but the fact is that there 
are no very suitable localities for Ducks to breed in; the 
freshwater reservoirs and lakes are, as a rule, dry, either from 
drainage off of the water or from natural causes, and their 
banks are bare and afford little, if auy, suitable cover; the salt- 
lakes are no better than a slush of brine, and the streams, 
with very few exceptions, are exhausted or diverted at the 
higher levels for domestic or agricultural purposes. An 
interesting document kindly placed at my disposal by Mr. 
Michell, the Commissioner of Limassol, well exemplifies the 
disappearance of water-fowl in summer : it is a daily record 
for nearly a year (from March lOth-November 20th, 1908) of 
the birds observed at the great Limassol salt-lake, kept, at 
request, by the salt-guard, an intelligent Cypriote minor 
official. Out of hundreds of entries, most of which relate to 
Swans, Geese, Ducks, and Cranes, the last summer note is 
on June 8th “ a very few ducks," and from thence onward, 
with the one exception of July 18th, “ four ducks," there is 
no record of any of the Anatidse until September 18th when 
“ducks" again appear in the journal, and continue daily 
to the conclusion of the diary. 
Some of the local Greek names used by this official— 
the record being kept in Greek—are rather unintelligible, 
but “ Hairrjpes” “ Bap/3apo;^ve?," “ Tepavoi,” “’'E7ro7re?," 
“ Kou/3oi)8e?," “O pTVKia ,” “ II e/car fores'," and “ MeXnrcro- 
(fraryoi,” are easily recognisable as “Ducks," “Wild Geese," 
“ Cranes," “ Hoopoes," “ Wild Swans," “ Quails" “Snipe," 
and “Bee-eaters." 
Notwithstanding the great abundance of the Duck tribe 
in winter, definite records of the rarer species have been, 
hitherto, meagre. Sibthorp mentions the Mallard, the Gar- 
ganey, and another species unknown to him which he called 
