Tour in Cyprus in 1887. 107 



time, reminded me strongly o£ the African Fringilla angolensis. 

 Harriers were not uncommon, but very shy, and it Avas some 

 days before I succeeded in obtaining one, a beautiful old 

 male Circus sivainsoni. The only rarity that I saw during 

 my stay at Episkopi was a Regulus of some species, which I 

 was unlucky enough to fail in obtaining. 



The scattered stones with which the fields and roadsides 

 of Cyprus are so abundantly provided aflbrded a good hunt- 

 ing-ground for the Coleopterist ; but the spoil to be obtained 

 by turning tbem over was by no means limited to beetles. 

 Under nearly every one might be found the pretty spotted 

 lizard Chalcides ocellatus, a small species of Julus, and not 

 unfrequently a scorpion [Buthus europceus), at this season 

 generally immature. B. peloponnensls is apparently a far less 

 common species. While searching a bed of brilliant yellow 

 Calendula for insects, I one day noticed a fly struggling in a 

 most energetic manner upon one of the flowers without any 

 apparent reason. JNJy curiosity being roused, I examined it 

 more closely, and then, to my astonishment, discovered that 

 the creature was in the jaws of a spider, which, in colouring, 

 exactly matches the vivid yellow of the corolla that served at 

 once as its home and lure. I had had the flower in my 

 hand some time, I dare say three or four seconds, before I 

 saw it. Afterwards, on careful examination of the flowers 

 around, I found that these spiders were abundant, but in 

 every case they kept carefully to the corolla, where alone 

 they remained invisible. 



This species [Tkomisus onustus) is also, as the Rev. O. P. 

 Cambridge informs me, found sparingly in the heath districts 

 of the south of England, and varies in tint according to the 

 colour of the blooms it inhabits. The female alone appears 

 to adopt this method of procuring its food, the male being 

 very rarely found. 



Athene nodua exists in such numbers at Episkopi that the 

 village may be regarded as its metropolis. Its clear ringing 

 note, "poo, pooep," can be heard in almost every garden — 

 seldom or never by day (although the bird often Hies at that 

 time), and not very commonly at night. Theirs is the 



