Ornithology of Cyprus. 415 



1015. (Edicnemus scolopax (S. G. Gmel.). 



The Stone Curlew is tolerably common in the plains and 

 is, at any rats in some numbers, resident. 



Sibthorp obtained it in May ; Lord Lilford found it 

 common in all suitable localities during his visit and believed 

 it to be a permanent resident: Schrader states that it can be 

 found singly throughout the year: Miiller mentions a male 

 taken in January ; Guillemard met with it in May and June ; 

 Glaszner at the end of August. Mr. Baxendale has had it 

 under his observation in the Papho district during prac- 

 tically the entire year, and I have had specimens sent to me 

 in March from Athalassa and in May also from the Nicosia 

 neighbourhood. Mr. G. F. Wilson, who has frequently shot 

 it, tells me that he has met with it in August, September, and 

 January, and that young birds have been obtained in August, 

 so that there is little doubt as to its breeding locally. It 

 was also noticed by Horsbrugh in May, and he saw a flock 

 of about twenty at Famagusta on January the 13th, 1910. 



1016. Glareola pkatincola (Linn.). 



Probably the " birds not unlike plovers," which appeared 

 upon the procession of the holy picture from the Kykko 

 monastery and " swooping down upon the locusts devoured 

 great quantity," as mentioned by Cornelis van Bruyn, a 

 Dutchman who visited ' Cyprus in 1683, were Pratincoles. 

 Van Bruyn states that these birds " had never been seen 

 before nor were ever seen again, but the Pasha had forbidden 

 them to be killed, under pain of death." 



Sibthorp, who includes this species in his list, speaks of 

 it in his Journal as a summer visitor. Lord Lilford found it 

 very abundant about the beginning of May and stated that 

 he felt no doubt that it bred in the island. Schrader states 

 that it occurs in small flocks at the migration seasons only. 

 Guillemard met with numbers at Morphou towards the end 

 of May 1887. Glaszner does not appear to have sent it to 

 Madarasz. None of our party came across this bird in the 

 spring of 1909, but, though it can no longer count on finding 

 flights of locusts in Cyprus, the island is well within its 



