11 
Ornithology of Cyprus. 
note, may easily escape observation. I used to see it almost 
daily from the beginning of July to the beginning of October 
1908, i. e. during the whole time I was in the hills, and 
occasionally shot a specimen. Horsbrugh found it fairly 
common in early June and obtained a nice series of old and 
young close to the Olympus Hotel not far from the summit; 
he found that they fed on small chrysalides and the seeds 
of the coniferous trees. They must, as a rule, breed very 
early, probably in March, at a time when their haunts are 
almost impassable to anyone on account of the snow, though 
it is worthy of remark that a very juvenile specimen in 
nesting plumage which had been shot on September the 17th 
was sent to Madarasz. It is perhaps as well that by a statute 
passed in Cyprus this year (1909) this bird and its eggs will 
be protected—except under special permit from the High 
Commissioner granted for scientific purposes—in future at 
all seasons of the year. “ Crossbill and bacon,” a favourite 
breakfast dish, I regret to say, with one Philistine met 
with by Horsbrugh will, I trust, soon be, so far as the former 
portion is concerned, legally an unobtainable delicacy. 
The bill of the old Crossbills, particularly of the males, is 
extraordinarily powerful and overlapping; in the juvenile 
specimens taken in early June it had not, in some cases, 
commenced to cross. Madarasz regards the Cyprian bird as 
very closely allied to the North European subspecies Loxia 
pityopsittacus. 
500. Emberiza miliaria Linn. 
The Corn-Bunting is a resident, though I have no doubt 
that its numbers are augmented largely by summer visitors. 
It was noticed by Sibthorp, and Lord Lilford found it 
“tediously common ” in April and May; Muller mentions 
several clutches of eggs taken from May the 6th to June 
the 4th. Guillemard found it generally distributed but 
confined to the lower altitudes ; Glaszner sent to Madarasz 
a good many specimens taken in the Larnaca district in 
January, March, April, November, and December. 
In Cyprus the Corn-Bunting commences to sing at the end 
