of the Birds of Cyprus. 579 



12. Merops apiaster. 



Lord Lilford was informed that these birds finally left 

 the island before the middle of July, but this was contrary 

 to my experience. I shot one on the 17th of July close to 

 Papho, where they were flying about in large numbers, and 

 on the 17th of the following month they were said to be still 

 found on the plains. I was told that about this time they 

 desert the plains and go up to the hills, finally leaving the 

 island about the beginning of October. Certainly I both 

 saw and heard them continually on Troodos during the 

 summer and up to the end of September, but met with none 

 on my return to the plains on the 7th of October. 



Although I have seen flocks flying about overhead when I 

 was at an elevation of 5000 ft., I never noticed any of them 

 settling on trees above the edge of the forest, which is 

 about 4000 ft. at the point where these observations were 

 made. 



13. Pterocles arenarius. 



Both Dr. Guillemard and Lord Lilford mention having 

 heard of a Sand-Grouse occurring in Cyprus, but they do 

 not appear to have procured it. The latter includes it in 

 his "List" under the name of Pterocles alchata, which 

 is that also given in the lists published by Drs. Unger and 

 Kotschy (Die Insel Cypern, 1865, p. 571) and Aug. Miiller 

 (J. f. O. 1879, p. 385). I only succeeded in procuring one 

 specimen, from the bazaar in Nikosia in November 1901, 

 and this proves to be an immature male of P. arenarius. 

 Although believing Sand-Grouse to be not uncommon in 

 the central plain, I never saw an example, though I picked 

 up some feathers belonging to this species not far from 

 Nikosia. An individual kept in a cage appeared to be 

 quite tame; but in a wild state they are said to be very 

 shy and difficult to approach, which probably accounts for 

 my failure to get other specimens from the bazaar, for the 

 native sportsman has a great dislike to wasting his powder 

 over a long shot. 



I was told that some of these birds remain all the vcar 



