162 Miscellaneous. 



Palasarctic Region will be found in these pages. The fact that the 

 eggs of the Osprey taken from the nests of American birds may be 

 distinguished by their " strong musky smell " is a case in point. 

 But it seems hardly necessary to tell us that Ducks and Pelicans 

 swim well ! Yet Mr. Dresser gravely assures us that tliis is a fact ! 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



On ilie Ossiferous Cave-dej)Osits of Cyprus. 

 By Dorothy M. A. Bate, 



Pretiotjs to 1901 no systematic search of the cave-deposits of 

 Cyprus appears to have been attempted. The geology was studied 

 by M. Albert Gaudry, who published an elaborate work in 1862 

 with a geological map, and Drs. Unger and Kotschy in 1865 also 

 gave a geological map of the island, differing somewhat from their 

 predecessor. 



As long ago as 1700 the Dutch traveller Corneille le Brun (Van 

 Bruyn) published an account of his wanderings in Cyprus and the 

 Levant, and mentions having visited a bed of bones, supposed to be 

 those of saints, not far from the Monastery of Haghios Chrysostomos. 

 A drawing of one of these bones is given, which Dr. Forsyth Major 

 has since shown to be that of Hippopotamus minutus*. 



The author started in 1901, in expectation of discovering an 

 extinct fauna in this ossiferous breccia, and this expectation was 

 amply fulfilled, for no fewer than twelve ossiferous caves were 

 found — five at Cape P}'la in the south-east, and seven on the 

 southern slopes of the Kerynia Hills in the north of the island. 



Two caves (mentioned by General di Cesnola in 1S77, at Cape 

 Pyla, as containing human fossilized bones) were first visited by the 

 author. The rock is here composed of Miocene (probably Hel- 

 vetian) limestone, Avcathered to a very great extent, and full of 

 marine shells and corals, as well as numerous Echinoids {Chjpeaster 

 portentosKs), also met with in the Miocene limestones of Malta. 



Here a number of caves were discovered in the cliffs. Jive of 

 which yielded remains of Hippopotamus minutus. 



The author then describes these caves in detail. The caves ex- 

 plored at Cape Pyla were : — (1) The Red Cliff Cave ; (2) the Great 

 Anonymous Cave ; (3) the Small Anonymous Cave ; (4) Haghios 

 Jannos ; (5) Haghios Saronda. This is the cave to which formerly 

 pilgrimages were made and candles burned in honour of the sacred 

 remains of saints. 



The cave-deposits of the Kerynia Hills are of uncertain geological 

 age, no fossils having been obtained from the limestone-rock of 



* Proc. Zool. Soc, June 1902. 



