38. passer. 303 



Zool. Misc. p. 84 (1844) ; Gray, Cat. Ma mm. etc. Nepal jires. 



Hodgs. p. 107 (1846); Lichl. Nomencl. Av. Berol. p. 47 (1854); 



Filippi, Viagg. Persia, p. 349 (i860); Bettoni, Ucc.nidif. Lumb. 



i. pi. 9 (1865; ; Loc/te, Exp!. Sci. Alger., Ois. i. p. 136 (18J7). 

 Pyrgita campe.?tris, Brehm, Fog. Deut.se/il. p. 267 (1831). 

 Pyrgita septentriona is, Brehm, t. c. p. 268 (1831). 

 Passer arboreus, Blyth in Bennies Field Naturalist, i. p. 467 (1833). 

 Friugilla coinpestris, Nordm. in Deinid. Vug. Buns. Me rid. hi. p. 180 



(1«40). 

 Salicipasser montanus, Bugd. B. Cauc. p. 60 (1879). 



Aclult male. General colour above fawn-colour, the feathers of the 

 mantle with ashy-fulvous edgings and broad black streaks ; lower 

 back, rump, and upper tail-coverts uniform ashy brown, with a slight 

 wash of fulvous or tawny; lesser wing-coverts uniform chestnut ; 

 median series black with broad white tips, forming a wing-bar ; 

 greater series dusky blackish, edged with pale rufous-brown and 

 whitish at the ends ; bastard-wing and primary-coverts dusky, fringed 

 •with rufous-brown ; quills dusky blackish, edged with rufous-brown, 

 the primaries conspicuously pale rufous near the base of the outer 

 ■web, the pale margin also widening slightly towards the end of the 

 feather ; tail-feathers brown, edged with ashy ; crown of head and 

 nape vinous chocolate ; lores and eyelid blackish, as also the feathers 

 at the base of the cheeks ; the latter white, as well as the ear-coverts, 

 the latter with a black line along the upper edge continued beneath 

 the eye, and having also a large black patch on the hinder part of 

 the lower ear-coverts ; sides of neck white ; throat and fore neck 

 black ; remainder of under surface of body pale ashy, the sides of 

 the body, Hanks, and thighs brown, the abdomen whiter ; under tail- 

 coverts white, with pale brown bases, the long ones pale brown with 

 whitish tips ; axillaries and under wing-coverts very pale fawn- 

 colour ; quills dusky below, pale ashy rufous along the edge of the 

 inner web ; bill black ; legs light brown ; iris brown. Total 

 length 5-6 inches, culmen 0-45, wing 2-75, tail 2, tarsus 0-7. 



Adult female. Similar to the male. Total length 52 inches, cul- 

 men 0-45, wing 2-65, tail 2 , l)5, tarsus - 7. 



There is scarcely any difference between the winter plumage and 

 the summer dress. The colour of the upper surface is a little more 

 tawny duriDg the winter season ; but there is not any obscuring of 

 the black throat by means of grey tips, as in the case of the Common 

 Sparrow and its allies. I am not certain, however, that the 

 young birds, after their first moult, do not show this peculiarity. 



Specimens from the far east, China &c, are so like European ex- 

 amples that they cannot be separated even as races ; they appear, 

 however, to have a tinge of rufous on the lower part of the black 

 throat : the latter is more extended in European birds, especially 

 English specimens. 



In Central Asia and Afghanistan a decidedly paler race occurs, 

 much more sandy in tint and of a paler chocolate on the head, and 

 having the black on the throat narrower. 



Young in first plumage (Orleans, July). Ptecalls the plumage 



