106 Dr. F. H. H. Guillemard — Ornithological 



hanging from the wall^ a pair of them came and perched on 

 it, pouring out a torrent of song, regardless of my presence. 

 Another pair always roosted in my room at Episkopi, their 

 perch being within a couple of yards of where I usually sat. 

 Their regularity in beginning the day Avas wonderful. From 

 a quarter to ten minutes to six (never later and never earlier) 

 they left their roosting-place for their first short flight up and 

 down the room, and I was left but little peace until they 

 were let out. 



One of my first excursions from Episcopi was to Curium, 

 a site that has probably been more explored by arcligeologists 

 {soi-disatit or otherwise) than any other in the island. Its 

 yellow cliffs were the haunt of innumerable Jackdaws and 

 Kestrels [Thmunculus cenchris), and the great prickly lizard, 

 Ayama stelUo, watched, motionless, here and there on the sum- 

 mits of the fallen stones below. On the hill where the city once 

 stood, now a mass of rubble overgrown with scrub, I found 

 Caccabis chukar abundant. The Kestrels were, no doubt, 

 breeding, and I shot one in the act of bringing a Thrush to 

 the nest. Judging from dissection, however, their food ap- 

 pears to consist chiefly of Coleoptera and Locusts. In 

 skinning them I found that the greater part of the body- 

 surface immediately beneath the skin was dotted with nu- 

 merous ova, about one half the size of those of the bluebottle 

 fly. A strong lens showed tW'O minute black dots at one end. 

 1 did not meet Avith these ova in any other bird I skinned in 

 Cyprus, but I found them on all the Kestrels I examined. 



On the road towards Colossi, where stands a massive square 

 tower, built, probably, at the beginning of the 14th century 

 by the Liisignans, the country was too open to offer many 

 attractions. Its only beauty lay in the wealth of little blue 

 iris [Jris sisyrinchium) which lines the road on either hand, 

 and the cyclamens springing from the interstices of the rocks. 

 The Kuris river (an open nullah of dry sand and boulders) 

 is crossed soon after leaving the village. Feeding on some 

 bushes on its banks, I shot the Serin Finch, which, on the 

 whole, is not common on the island. In habits, note, and 

 general appearance this bird, which I here shot for the first 



