the Birds of Ctjprus. 335 



abundance or scarcity of this bird in various parts of the 

 island^ but we found a considerable number and heard many 

 more along the coast from a few miles northwards of 

 Salamis, nearly to the extremity of the Horn of Cyprus. I 

 also met with it in the hills to the west of Trikhomo^ where 

 on April 24th, 1875, 1 had the luck to find a nest containing 

 eleven eggs ; but as my notes on this species have been 

 published in extenso by Mr. Dresser in his ' Birds of Europe/ 

 I will not recapitulate them here. Sir Garnet (now 

 Viscount) Wolseley did me the honour, on leaving England 

 to assume the High Commissionership of Cyprus in 1878, 

 to consult me with regard to framing a Game Law ; but I do 

 not know if he thought well of, or acted upon, my 

 recommendations. Be this as it may, I am pleased to learn 

 from Guillemard that the Francolin still exists in some 

 numbers in certaiii districts, though virtually extinct in 

 many localities in which it was formerly abundant. 



The drawing up and issuing of laws by a Governor and 

 his Council are by no means difficult matters, nor need there 

 be any serious obstacle in enforcing them ; but as we have 

 given the Cypriotes the very questionable benefit of repre- 

 sentative government, it is more than probable that the 

 Francolin and many other sweet and pleasant things of 

 Cyprus are doomed to extinction. The Turk allowed 

 " sleeping dogs to lie;" the Englishman, with let us hope the 

 best intentions, entered Cyprus with a great flourish of 

 trumpets and talk of emancipation, of which the only result, 

 so far, appears to have been a temporary outbreak of Greek 

 frothy scum and vapour, and a subsidence on all parts into 

 complete apathy. 



Unger and Kotschy give the Greek name of this bird as 

 '^ ATTayavapi," which the Cyprians pronounce as " Afto- 

 chiuari." *. 



141. Common Quail. Coturniae vulgaris. 



We found a very great number of Quails near the coasts 

 of Cyprus shortly after our arrival thereon, about the middle 

 of April ; a few dropped on our deck at night as the yacht 



