316 FBrSTGILLIDiE. 



extending beyond the fore neck. Total length 6 inches, culmen 

 f±55, wing 3, tail 2-15, tarsus 0-75. 



The winter plumage is, as in other Sparrows, confined to the 

 obscuring of the summer plumage by sandy-buff edges to the 

 feathers, which are shed in the following spring. 



Obs. It is quite possible that the specimen recorded from Spain 

 may have come from some other habitat of the present species ; but 

 Dr. Adams's specimen from Malta proves its occurrence in that 

 island, in spite of Mr. Dresser's doubts (B. Eur. I. c). The one 

 from N. Africa in Mr. Gould's collection is typical, but a Tripoli 

 specimen is somewhat intermediate and has some black centres to 

 the flank-feathers, showing an approach to P. hispaniolensis* '. 



Hab. Southern Europe ; S.E. France ; Italy ; Malta ; Northern 

 Africa ; Palestine and North-eastern Africa. 



5. Passer pyrrhonotus. (Plate V.) 



Passer pyrrhonotus, Blyth, J. A. S. Beng. xiii. p. 946 (1844) ; id. 

 Cat. B. Mm. As. Soc. p. 119 (1849) ; Bp. Consp. i. p. 503 (1850) ; 

 Jerd. B. hid. ii. p. 305 (1863) ; Blyth, Ibis, 1868, p. 354 ; Gray, 

 Hand-l. B. ii. p. 85, no. 7272 (1870) ; Hume, Sir. F. 1873, p. 209, 

 1879, p. 107, 1880, pp. 232, 442 ; ScropeDoig, Str. F. 1880, p. 280 ; 

 Murray, Vertebr. Faun. Sind, p. 184 (1884). 



Adult male. General colour above chestnut, the feathers edged 

 with ashy brown, the mantle and scapular-feathers yellowish buff 

 externally, with conspicuous black central streaks ; lesser wing- 

 coverts chestnut : median coverts black, broadly tipped with white, 

 with more or less chestnut on the outer web ; greater coverts 

 blackish, externally chestnut or rufous, and buffy whitish at tips ; 

 bastard-wing and primary-coverts black, fringed with brown ; quills 

 blackish brown, edged with rufous, the primaries with an indentation 

 of buff margin near the base of the outer web and a second smaller 

 one at about one third of the distance from the tip ; upper tail- 



* In Mr. O. Wright's collection of Maltese birds are examples both of P. 

 italics and P. hispaniolensis in full breeding-plumage. He possesses also several 

 specimens with slightly striped flanks, evidently hybrids between the two species. 

 This accounts for the opinion expressed by Mr. Wright (Ibis, 18(14, p. 51) that 

 there was a perfect gradation between P. italics and P. hispaniolensis in Malta. 



