Ornithology of Cyprus. 11 



note, may easily escape observation. I used to see it almost 

 daily from the beginning of July to the beginning of October 

 1908, i. e. during the whole time I was in the hills, and 

 occasionally shot a specimen. Horsbrugh found it fairly 

 common in early June and obtained a nice series of old and 

 young close to the Olympus Hotel not far from the summit; 

 he found that they fed on small chrysalides and the seeds 

 of the coniferous trees. They must, as a rule, breed very 

 early, probably in March, at a time when their haunts are 

 almost impassable to anyone on account of the snow, though 

 it is worthy of remark that a very juvenile specimen in 

 nesting plumage which had been shot on September the 17th 

 was sent to Madarasz. It is perhaps as well that by a statute 

 passed in Cyprus this year (1909) this bird and its eggs will 

 be protected — except under special permit from the High 

 Commissioner granted for scientific purposes — in future at 

 all seasons of the year. " Crossbill and bacon," a favourite 

 breakfast dish, I regret to say, with one Philistine met 

 with by Horsbrugh will, I trust, soon be, so far as the former 

 portion is concerned, legally an unobtainable delicacy. 



The bill of the old Crossbills, particularly of the males, is 

 extraordinarily powerful and overlapping; in the juvenile 

 specimens taken in early June it had not, in some cases, 

 commenced, to cross. Madarasz regards the Cyprian bird as 

 very closely allied to the North European subspecies Loxia 

 pityopsittacus. 



500. Emberiza miliaria Linn. 



The Corn-Bunting is a resident, though I have no doubt 

 that its numbers are augmented largely by summer visitors. 

 It was noticed by Sibthorp, and Lord Lilford found it 

 " tediously common " in April and May; Miiller mentions 

 several clutches of eggs taken from May the 6th to June 

 the 4th. Guillemard found it generally distributed but 

 confined to the lower altitudes ; Glaszner sent to Madarasz 

 a good many specimens taken in the Larnaca district in 

 January, March, April, November, and December. 



In Cyprus the Corn-Bunting commences to sing at the end 



