and its Birds in 1888. 207 



that I found myself on the 18th November at Marseilles en 

 route for Athens and Larnaka. The Mediterranean is almost 

 proverbial for its bad weather, but I do not remember ever 

 having experienced a worse example of it than that we met 

 with before reaching the welcome shelter of the Piraeus. Here 

 I was joined by Mr. Ernest Gardner, the Director of the 

 Cyprus Exploration, and on the 30th of November we landed 

 in Larnaka. 



I learnt on arrival that not a drop of rain had fallen since 

 I left the island on the 1st July. The surrounding country 

 w^as of the colour of whity-brown paper, and I saw nothing 

 of interest in the neighbourhood of the town. A day or 

 two later we moved to Nikosia, and providing ourselves with 

 mules and various necessaries, started on a tour round the 

 island, w^hich had for its object the inspection of the different 

 sites which w^e thought likely to repay excavation. 



Had it been my first experience of the island I think I 

 should have quitted it in disgust by the earliest steamer. 

 Miserable weather attended us from the very first. We had 

 not left Nikosia an hour before the long-looked-for rain broke 

 over us, much as the monsoon breaks in India, and we had 

 to struggle through it as best we could to Kyrenia. Next 

 day we pursued our journey under like skies, and, indeed, 

 until our arrival at Limassol about a fortnight later, our 

 unvarying ill fortune in this respect not only left me with an 

 ornithological note-book as barren as the Mesorea in Sep- 

 tember, but at the same time prevented much being done to 

 further the plans of the Cyprus Exploration Fund. The 

 rocky paths were converted into small torrents, and the 

 Morphon plain was a sheet of mud and water, through which 

 we slipped and splashed at a snaiFs pace for four hours. 

 Hardly a bird was to be seen, but I noticed one House Martin 

 during our trip, and one or two Sylvia melanothorax . This 

 latter bird, I have no doubt, is largely migratory, but a fair 

 number remain in the island throughout the winter. 



My journey bore unpleasant fruit in the shape of a slight 

 attack of malarial fever, which more or less incapacitated me 

 for some days, and it was not until New Year's Eve that I 



