A VES. 69 



formerly stated it to be never found in winter, but was in error. In 1S81 

 I met with it twice in February. It breeds down the wells. 



The Rock Sparrow occurs over a wide range, from the Canaries across 

 Barbary, Southern and Central Europe, Central Asia, North Persia, an 

 Thibet as far as North China. 



122. Petronia brachydactyla. Bp. Conspect. Gen. Av. i., p. 513. 

 Desert Rock Sparrow. 



Plate X. 



This very plain and meanly coloured bird is very scarce and local. I 

 first found it in a bare desert plain under Hermon, and took two nests in 

 low bushes not two feet from the ground. The eggs are glossy white 

 with a few marone spots, like a diminutive Golden Oriole's. It has only 

 been found on bare desert ground in Arabia, North-east Africa, the 

 Persian desert plateau, and Palestine. 



123. RIontifriiigilla nivalis. (Linn. Syst. Nat. i., p. 321.) Snow 

 Finch. 



Isolated and sedentary, a few pairs of the Snow Finch may be seen on 

 the snowy tops of Hermon and Lebanon, descending in winter to the 

 base of the mountains, a stranded relic, perhaps, of the glacial epoch, 

 clinging, as it does, to these southern mountain tops, identical in species 

 from the Pyrenees to the Caucasus. 



124. Fri7igilla mlcbs. Linn. Syst. Nat. i., p. 318. Chaffinch. 



The Chaffinch is very common in winter in flocks, the sexes apart, on 

 the maritime plains and southern uplands, the male flocks appearing 

 gready to exceed the female in number. Early in spring they disappear, 

 but numbers breed in the north among the mulberry groves under Hermon 

 and Lebanon, and they are especially numerous at the Cedars. The 

 species is identical with our own, while Algeria and the Canaries and 

 Azores have their peculiar species. 



The Chaffinch ranges from the North of Europe to the Mediter- 

 ranean, and as far as the forest region of Persia, its Eastern limit. 



