GREECE. 



75 



procure specimens, I was unable to determine the species. Of the 

 owls, the horned owl is rare ; I saw it in the island Ambelia ; and I 

 heard it hoot among the rocks near Livadea ; it sometimes, though 

 rarely, visits Athens: Dr. Chandler had kept one during his stay 

 there, which he released on his leaving Athens ; he tells us, it was 

 visited by the Athenians as a curiosity. The little owl, Strix passerina, 

 is the most common species in Greece, and abounds in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Athens. Three distinct species of Butcher-bird are 

 frequent among the olive grounds ; the ash-coloured, the red-headed, 

 and the small grey Butcher-bird. The two last species I do not find 

 described by Linnaeus. 



Of the crow tribe, I observed the raven, the hooded crow, the 

 jackdaw, the magpie, and the Cornish chough. The hooded crow 

 which retires from England during the summer, is a constant in- 

 habitant of Attica, and is probably that species noticed by the 

 ancients under the name of y.o^vr. It is the word applied at 

 present to it by the Greek peasants, who are the best commentators 

 on the old naturalists. Linnaeus seems injudiciously to have applied 

 it to the Carrion crow. Jackdaws abound at Athens, and are fre- 

 quently seen flying round the Acropolis. The Cornish chough which 

 generally confines itself to the mountainous parts of Greece, and in- 

 habits the broken cliffs and caverns of Parnassus, sometimes descends 

 into the plains ; we observed it under the eastern coast of Attica. 

 The roller frequents the fruit gardens, and the outskirts of villages 

 and the olive grounds. The cuckoo is heard early in the spring, but 

 its season of calling was now past. The Sitta, which I regard as a 

 new species, distinct from the Sitta Europaea was shot on the rocks 

 at Delphi. I saw the king's fisher flying along the eastern coast of 

 Greece in the gulph of Negropont. The Merops invited by the 

 bee-hives of Hymettus appears about Athens, at the latter end of 

 summer. The hoopoe which I also observed, is here a bird of 

 passage. Of the duck tribe, various species visit the salt lakes, and 

 shores of the coast of Attica during the winter ; these retire during 

 the summer to more unfrequented fresh water lakes, and deep mo- 



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