( 479) 



The Rock-iSpiirrow is widely sjiread in AIu:yria. lu Nortliern Algeria we foniul 

 it, in February and on May 15, on the Djebel Taya, at an altitude of IiJiJU m. and 

 higher. Near EI Kantara we came across it several times, and twice saw it close 

 to Biskra. Wherever we saw or heard it, it was very shy, so that we only managed 

 to shoot a few specimens on the Djebel Taya, and two at El Kantara. Near 

 Biskra they were so wild that we could not get a shot at one. On Tenerife one 

 of us found Rock-Sijarrows (Petronia petroida muflrirrnsis) not at all shy. 



Mr. Fliickiger collected P. p. barbara near Batua and Lambese, and at Kerrata 

 in North Algeria. South of Biskra it has not been noticed. 



20, 21. The Sparrows. 

 (Plate XL, and explanation.) 



There has been much uncertainty about the Sparrows of N.W. Africa. It has 

 been generally admitted that both Passer domesticas a,nd kispaniolensis ave common, 

 while several authors also supposed Passer italiac to be more or less numerous (cf. 

 Loche, Koenig, Whitaker, especially B. Tunisia i. p. 205). Some ornitiiologists 

 (Meade-Waldo in Morocco, AVhitaker in Tunisia) have also stated that they met 

 with evident hybrids, and AVhitaker (t.c. p. 2ii;5j informs us " that in some villages 

 of Western Tnnisia a bastard race is found, partaking of the characters of both 

 species." In 1904 one of us, when reviewing the Sparrows for his work on the 

 Birds of the Palaearctic Fauna {Vog. pal. Fauna i. jip. 147-58), noticed differences 

 between the House-Sparrows of N.W. Africa and those from Europe, and employed 

 for the former the name Passer domesticus tingitarms Loche, and he refuted the 

 idea of the occurrence of P. italiae in N.W. Africa, while he was doubtful about the 

 alleged hybrids (p. 152, note). Hybrids — as we now know them to be — were named 

 "Passer ahaseer^'' by Mr. Kleinschmidt {On/. Moiiatsber. 1904, p. 7), and the 

 more or less established bastard race of the southern oases has been called " Passer 

 Jlilckigeri" by the same author, from Algerian specimens {Orn. Mo/iafsber. 1904, 

 p. 158, type Touggourt), and " Passer italiae bergeri " by Graf Zedlitz, from 

 Tunisian examples {Orn. Monnt.-fher. 1908, p. 41, type Gafsa). 



Our observations and collections in Algeria have definitely shown that both 

 P. domesticus (in a slightly differentiated form, for which the name P. domesticus 

 tirigitanus is now being usedj, and P. hispaniolensis occur, that P. italiae does not 

 occur, aud that the House Sparrows interbreed freely with the Spanish Sparrows, 

 to such an extent that in many places it is easier to get hybrids than j)ure-bred 

 examples of either the House or the Spanish Sparrow, and that in the oases of the 

 south a bastard race with chestnut crown has become more or less fixed, so that 

 only three or four birds were found there which one might call liispanioleKsis 

 while collecting a series of over forty specimens, and seven which show unquestion- 

 ably an admixture of domesticus-coloiw on the crown, though with much accentuated 

 black bases to the feathers, these black bases being characteristic of the 

 N.W. African race. On the other hand, we have not been able to obtain a single 

 undoubtedly jmre P. domesticus tinyitanns in Touggourt or El Oued, although we 

 were constantly on the look-out for grey-headed Sparrows : we have, however, 

 received a male from Mr. Fliickiger, shot in the oasis of Touggourt on April 2, 

 1904 (No. 182 of the Fliickiger collection), which lias the whole crown grey, with 

 ihe black bases showing through, yet the chestnut colour encroaches a little 

 behind the eyes ; the sides have no black stripes. 



In and around Algiers town Sparrows are extremely numerous, and many 



32 



