Tour in Cyprus in 1887. 95 



expedition was very meagre in zoological results, and unhap- 

 pily ended in the death of the collector, I had_, probably in 

 common with many other British ornithologists, been hoping 

 for some information on the fauna of Cyprus from some of 

 our countrymen more or less permanently established there, 

 ever since the year just mentioned, but in vain ; and as I am 

 convinced that the island, if properly worked, could show at 

 least as long a list of birds as any district of equal area 

 washed by the Mediterranean, I requested Dr. Guillemard 

 to see what he could do there. I am very glad to say that 

 he is about to start very shortly on a second collecting expe- 

 dition to Cyprus, and I hope, with the permission of the 

 Editors, to present the readers of ' The Ibis ' before very 

 long with a detailed list of the birds met with by him, 

 Mr. Pearse, and myself. — L. 

 Bournemouth, Nov. 1887. 



Those who are acquainted only with the more western 

 islands of the Mediterranean — Corsica, with its snow-capped 

 peak of Monte Rotondo peeping from above the pine-groves ; 

 Sicily, with Taormina, the champion view of Europe ; Corfu, 

 the richness of whose verdure is hardly to be surpassed even 

 by Madeira — will be more than disappointed with the first 

 view of Cyprus. They may consider themselves fortunate if 

 their first port should chance to be Limassol. The long row 

 of white houses, dotted here and there with date-palms ; the 

 tent-besprinkled slopes of Polymedia running back to the 

 spurs of the Troodos range; the sunlight dancing on the 

 crisp blue waters of the bay (and when is there not sun in 

 Cyprus?) — all these form a pleasant picture enough; but 

 the traveller is somehow conscious that the island has done 

 her best ; that she has, in short (may I be pardoned the 

 metaphor !), got all her goods in the shop-window; and this 

 impression is perhaps not entirely removed on a closer 

 acquaintance. There are, no doubt, charming views in 

 Cyprus ; but they are those where the barren treelessness, 

 so characteristic of the country, becomes softened or obli- 

 terated by the charm of distance. 



