112 Dr. F. H. H. Guillemard — Ornithological 



cephalus at the head of the bay, feeding about half a mile 

 inland on beetles and Helix pisana, a snail which exists in 

 such numbers that the herbage and stunted shrubs were 

 nearly white with them in some places. But after leaving 

 the sea hardly a bird was to be seen. With the exception of 

 the Crested Lark, I think that a solitary Harrier and a few 

 pairs of Sylvia conspicillata were the only species I noticed. 



Varosia shows what may be done in Cyprus with plenty of 

 water and careful cultivation. A strip of gai*dens extends along 

 the coast between the village and the sea for a distance of about 

 three or four miles. They are the great pomegranate- and 

 orange-orchards of the island. Here I spent three or four 

 days in the vain hope of finding some of the rarer Warblers. 

 The Blackcap and Hypolais eluica were common enough, but 

 there ajDpeared to be no other, except a few Phylloscopus sibi- 

 latrix. H. elaica I found here for the first time (April 21st), 

 so that it must be a tolerably late arrival. It is the com- 

 monest of its family, being found at every altitude and in 

 every part of the island ; but the olive-trees seem to be its 

 favourite hunting-ground. The song is a meaningless un- 

 finished warble, consisting generally of four or five notes 

 repeated over and over again. 



The walls of the magnificent fortress of Famagusta and 

 the ruins of the numerous churches destroyed by the Turkish 

 bombardment of 1571 are tenanted by innumerable Jack- 

 daws and Tinnunculus cenchris, and not a few Athene nodua. 

 On the battlements I shot Hirundo rufida, and found its nest in 

 a rock-hewn cavern, attached to the smooth flat roof. In 

 general this is the situation adopted, but sometimes the back 

 of the nest is built against a beam, or against a wall where 

 it joins the ceiling. The entrance is a short tunnel, with a 

 slightly covered lip. The eggs are pure white, and, in this 

 case, were six in number. 



I heard the Bee-eater [Merops apiaster) on April 24th, and 

 saw it and the Roller on the following day. Both are abun- 

 dant in Cyprus. On the 26th I visited a small lake about 

 a couple of miles westward of the town. The graceful little 

 Tern, Sterna minuta, hovered at the mouth of a small stream 



