10 
Mr. J. A.Bucknill on the 
and without remark by Muller, who inserts it only on Unger 
and Kotschy’s authority. Sibthorp* s name is itself, however, 
not very clear, as it might refer to the Mealy or Lesser 
Redpoll. It is not, in any case, likely that either bird would 
occur in Cyprus, and I am inclined to assume that the Linnet 
—Linaria linota (Gmel.)—was the species really intended by 
Sibthorp. I bracket the name of this bird as I do not think 
that it has, at present, any claim to be recorded among the 
Cypriote avifauna. 
495. Loxia curvirostra Linn. 
Loxia guillemardi Madarasz. 
The Crossbill was probably discovered in Cyprus by 
Sibthorp, who states in his journal (19th of April, 1787) that 
on the northern range near the Convent of Antiphoniti, he 
shot two species of Loxia . . . one which he proposed to call 
L. varia and the other L. cinerea. Perhaps his two supposed 
species were the male and female Crossbill, and if so, the 
record is peculiarly interesting as, at the present time, the 
Crossbill is confined to the southern range. Sibthorp did not 
include these two species in his formal list, and accordingly 
they do not appear in that of Unger and Kotschy. No 
more is heard of a Crossbill until Guillemard' , s arrival, and 
although on his first visit he was informed that such a bird 
existed it was not until his second visit that he discovered—or 
rediscovered—the species on the highest parts of Troodos in 
April 1888, when he obtained a good series of old and young 
and found it in some abundance. He remarked on the very 
dark colour of their plumage, and Lord Lilford called attention 
to the stoutness of their bills. It was reserved for Madarasz, 
from examples sent to him by Glaszner, to separate the 
Cypriote form as distinct. 
In Cyprus the Crossbill is confined to the highest coniferous 
forest-areas of the Troodos Range, and personally I have 
never seen it elsewhere than in the more or less immediate 
neighbourhood of the summer station on the saddle of the 
topmost divide. It is fairly common, but shifts about in 
small or sometimes biggish flocks and, unless one knows its 
