Notes on the Spreading of some Cyprmn Plants. 321 



A considerable number of species belonging to the flora of the island have fleshy berries or stone- 

 fruits, and there is no doubt that endozoic seed-spreading, especially by birds, is of great importance. 

 On salient mountain-crags and similar places, for instance on the cairns erected on the highest mountain- 

 tops for trigonometrical puiposcs, great quantities of bird-excrements are often seen. To a great extent 

 these undoubtedly oiiginate from ravens, which are numerous in these heights, and often sit for long whiles 

 just on such places. Often the excrements are quite full of plant-seeds; particularly fruit-stones of i^<c«s 

 carica and occasionally of Olea europaea are as a rule present in great quantities, but also several other 

 species may be represented. This I have f. inst. had the opportunity of observing on the tops of Adelphi 

 and Kionia in the Troodos-rangc. Just the two tree-species, here mentioned, belong to those which are 

 most often found growing epiphytically in the crowns of other trees, and also in wall-crevices, rock-fissures, 

 and in other similar places difficult of access, where they can hai-dly have been brought without the help of 

 birds. This is also the case with several other plants with berries or stone-fruits, e. g. Buhus uhnifolrus 

 subsp. cniatoUcus, Morus alba, Prasimn majus and Smilax asperu. 



That birds in endozoical way carry seeds to Cyprus from the continent of Asia, may safely be in- 

 ferred from the following observations. It is wellknown from ancient times, that numerous small warblers 

 every autumn, in the mouth of September, are in the habit of resting on the coasts of Cyprus, near to Capo 

 Greco, during their passage over the sea from Karamania and Syria to Egypt and the interior of Africa. 

 Through centuries the population in the neighbouring villages, especially Hagia Napa, have caught the 

 exhausted birds with lime-twigs and sold them to the towns under the name of "beccafico" or "p^xa-cjjfyia"; 

 preserved in vinegar these birds are still held to be a delicacy, and they have formerly to a rather great 

 extent been subject even to exportation.') According to the kind information of Mr. Ch. Ctlaszner in Larnaka. 

 it is for the greatest part the black-cap (Sylvia atricapilla) which is caught in this way at Capo Greco. 

 I visited the place on the 16th and 17th of September 1905, and was present on the spot, a little bay 

 in the immediate neighbourhood of the light-house, while the bird-catching was going on. The flocks 

 arrive regularly about midnight, and are then so exhausted, that, were it not for the darkness, they might 

 easily have been caught by hand. About 3 o'clock in the morning, as soon as the dawn commences, the 

 catching goes on, and the birds which have escaped the lime-twigs continue their flight some few hours 

 later. I examined the digestive canals of in all 57 individuals of Sylvia atricapiUa, just caught. In all 

 of them the gullet and the craw were quite empty, or contained in a few cases some thoroughly digested 

 remains of insects, particularly ants. However, in 6 of the birds I found in the intestines some plant- 

 seeds, which seemed to be in quite an undamaged condition. If the seeds had been eaten after the landing 

 on the island, they could hardly have reached down iu the intestines, and they must, therefore, in all 

 probability have been transported over the sea by the birds. The majority of the seeds obviously belong 

 to various minor species of Leguminosae and Caryophyllaeeae, but without a considerable material of seeds 

 of Syrian plants for comparison I do not venture to determine them more closely.'^) — When speaking of 

 endozoic seed-spreading besides the birds also certain mammals, above all the ruminant domestic animals, 

 must be taken in consideration; various investigators have directly proved that seeds of many ditterent 

 plants preserve their germinating power after having passed through the digestive canals of these animals. 

 We must also bear in mind the large fruit-eating bat (Rousettas aegyptiacus), which in many places on 

 Cyprus is extremely numerous, and which causes considerable harm to the oranges, carobs and other 

 fruit-trees. 



^) Cp. Oberhummer, Die Insel Cypern, I, p. 363. 



-) In this connection may he mentioned an observation, which I had the opportunity of making on the 18th of February 

 1905, during my voyage to Cyprus, off the coast of Tunis. A lark (Alauda sp.), clearly quite exhausted after the long flight 

 over the sea, sat down on the deck, and died shortly afterwards. In its craw I found 3 seeds of a little legumiuous plant, 

 most likely Vicia sp., which it must have carried with it from laud. When the bird came onboard, the ship was 27 miles 

 (= exactly 50 km.) from the nearest land, the cape Ras Eiigelah on the nurtliern coast of Tunis. 



41 



