Tour in Cyprus in 1887. 97 



in almost every part of the island I visited. It inhabits the 

 roofs of the houses, and its slight domestic disagreements or 

 faint cat-like mewings are common sounds of the night in a 

 Cypriote house. At a later visit to Larnaka I obtained a 

 good series of eggs of this species. 



A walk in the environs of the town on the morning after 

 my arrival was almost devoid of interest from an ornitholo- 

 gist's point of view, I visited the Government Gardens. 

 The word garden can only be applied to the result of the 

 floricultural endeavours of the islanders by a person whose 

 sense of humour is subordinated to that of politeness ', but it 

 is unkindly Nature, and no unskilfulness on the part of the 

 gardener, that causes the failure. These grounds were per- 

 haps nearer to success than any others I saw, or would have 

 been had they been under cultivation ; but they had been 

 deserted for two or three years or more. The ruined cottage 

 at the entrance spoke only too plainly of the monetary 

 disabilities under which Cyprus is labouring. The Turkish 

 debt hangs like a millstone round her neck, and, until it is 

 removed, all progress, whether in the Government Gardens or 

 in the affairs of the island, will be alike an impossibility. 



Larnaka is a poor collecting-ground, except for marsh- 

 and lake-haunting birds, and being anxious to choose a good 

 spot at which to establish myself for the spring migrants, I 

 started for Nikosia without delay. The road, constructed 

 by the English, traverses the dreary plain of the Mesorea (or 

 Messaria, as it is invariably misspelt), the only interest of 

 which is geological. At no very far distant epoch Cyprus 

 existed as two separate islands, that to the north, long and 

 narrow, a single mountain-range two or three thousand feet 

 in height ; that to the south less long, but of greater area — 

 the present Troodos range. The intervening plain bears 

 abundant evidences of its upheaval. It is dotted here and 

 there with low flat-topped hills, and in many places extensive 

 beds of fossil shells exist. In some of these that I afterwards 

 examined there were large quantities of Ostrea, Pecten, and 

 Cyprina. 



The Mesorea is visited by Otis tetrax, which is occasionally 



8ER. V. VOL. Vr. H 



