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OBSERVATIONS ON NATURAL HISTORY, 



RELATING 



TO PARTS OF GREECE, AND TO THE ISLAND OF CYPRUS. 

 [FROM THE PAPERS OF THE LATE DR. SIBTHORP.] 



We had observed a small number of wild animals in Cyprus, but 

 the heights of Parnassus, and the mountains of Hymettus and Pen- 

 deli furnish a retreat to many, and considerably encrease the list of 

 Grecian Mammalia. My enquiries were frequent, but the inaccessi- 

 ble haunts of some of these animals, and the difficulty of procuring 

 others, made it almost impossible for me to determine the number of 

 species with precision. The domestic animals in Attica and Boeotia 

 are the same as those in Cyprus, excepting the camel, which is not 

 used in Greece; it is very common throughout Asia Minor. Pausania s 

 mentions the bear as an inhabitant of Pendeli ; about three years 

 since one was shot in the mountains of Parnassus, and brought to 

 Aracova. The lynx, the wild cat, the wild boar, the wild goat, the 

 stag, the roebuck, the badger, the martin, and squirrel, inhabit the 

 steeper rocks of Parnassus, and the thick pine-forests above Callidia. 

 The rough mountains about Marathon are frequented by wolves, foxes, 

 and jackalls ; weasels are sometimes taken in the villages and out- 

 houses ; hares are too numerous to be particularised. The mole 

 burrows in the rich ground of Livadea*; the hedge-hog was brought 



* This passage does not agree with the remark of Aristotle, who says (lib. viii. c. 2/.)» 

 " that there are no moles at Lebadea, but many about Orchomenus." On the other hand 

 Antigonus C. (c. 10.), and the author De Mirabil. (c. 136.), and Stephanus Byz. in v. 

 Kocco'vsia, say, that moles abound in Boeotia, but that they are not seen at Coronea, mak- 

 ing no mention of Lebadea. See Schneider in Aris. H. A. viii. c. 27. 



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