34 
Mr. J. A. Bucknill on the 
has observed it at Papho; and though Lord Lilford remarks 
that the instance recorded by Guillemard was the only one 
known to him of this species nesting in a house, it is 
perhaps worthy of remark, that the only nest which any 
of us actually came across was built in a similar situation 
at Papho, at the end of March this year. Horsbrugh obtained 
several specimens in different parts of the island in March, 
April, and May. 
706. Athene noctua (Scop.). 
The Little Owl, and the sub-species next dealt with, 
should perhaps be really treated together, for at any rate in 
Cyprus the bird, which is an extremely common resident, 
seems to range through almost every variety of shade between 
and including the typical forms. As Stria? passerina it was 
recorded by Sibthorp: Unger and Kotschy however in¬ 
cluded it in their list as Athene noctua , Betz., var. meri- 
dionalis. 
Lord Lilford, who remarked upon the sandy coloured 
plumage of specimens collected by himself and Pearse, con¬ 
sulted Seebohm with regard to them. Seebohm identified 
the collection as “ a good series, all more or less intermediate 
between Athene noctua and Atheneglaux ” a conclusion more 
or less borne out by a series sent by Glaszner to Madarasz. 
The latter remarks that they are, although somewhat darker 
than specimens from Palestine, Transcaspia, and Persia, really 
closer to Athene glaux than to A. noctua, whilst at any rate 
one specimen from GlasznePs collection could be regarded 
as a perfectly typical specimen of the former type. To what 
has already been written about this bird in Cyprus I have 
little to add. Muller records clutches of eggs taken between 
the 8th of May and the 4-th of June, but we found clutches of 
six, highly incubated, as early as the 10th of Apiil and fully 
fledged young on the 23rd of' May. Miss Bate states that 
she never observed the species in the Troodos forest, but we 
obtained eggs at Kaiubos in 1909, and Guillemard records the 
bird from the summit of the southern range, while I have 
seen it on several occasions in the summer within a few 
