36 
Mr. J. A. Bucknill on the 
of hundreds I used to see round Pretoria shortly after the 
Boer war. The Griffon Vulture is, however, a tolerably 
common resident, although I do not remember seeing more 
than about twenty together. It nests in suitable localities in 
both ranges of mountains and also on the cliffs of the Akrotiri 
promontory. It breeds early in the year, and eggs which 
Ilorsbrugh and I obtained on the 21st and 31st of March, 
1909, in the Kyrenia range, were very much incubated. We 
did not find many eyries nor did we see more than half a dozen 
pairs in the few miles of mountain which we worked : the 
nests each contained only one egg and were inaccessible to us 
without a rope, but fortune favoured us with a native guide— 
one Charilaou, of avillage near Buffavento—whose astonishing 
climbingperformances, after he bad doffed his huge high boots, 
filled us with mixed feelings of envy, admiration and terror. 
However Mr. Mich ell, the Commissioner of Limassol, tells me 
he has taken eggs in the southern range from quite easy sites. 
The southern sea cliffs, again, where Lord Lilford and 
Guillemard found the bird at home, would require a rope. 
Guillemard obtained three young in early May from the 
eastern part of the Kyrenia hills, and also brought back an 
egg from the same range. In the summer months a few birds 
frequent the neighbourhood of the camp on Troodos, and 
wherever the traveller may be in the island, on a bright day 
he can usually see high up in the sky one of these great 
birds majestically soaring and watching for a carcase. 
712. Vultur monachus Linn. 
The Black Vulture was thought by Lord Lilford, who 
did not meet with the species himself, to be only an occasional 
visitor from Asia Minor. It has not hitherto been very 
frequently recorded from the island. An immature specimen 
was sent, in the spring of 1880, from Cyprus to the London 
Zoological Gardens by Capt. Alexander, B.E., and lived there 
for some years. 
Guillemard came across an old, and a full grown young 
bird at Morphou and shot the latter, but it is not surprising 
to hear that its enormous bulk and other difficulties familiar 
