2l6 



Hviai\> 3BirDs 3 bave met in tbeir natural State. 



By Douglas Dbwar, F.Z.S., I.C.S. 



{Continued from page 192). 

 V. THICK-BILLED BIRDS. 



Although no fewer than sixty-four species of Finch are 

 recorded as being found in India, these birds cannot be said to 

 be a conspicuous feature of the avifauna. The great majority 

 of them are confined to the higher ranges of the Himalayas. 

 Those that descend to the plains can be numbered on the fingers. 



The Common Sparrow (Passer domesticus) is the only species 

 which obtrudes himself upon the notice of the Anglo-Indian. 

 The Indian Sparrow differs slightly from his brethren in England. 

 On this account Jerdon gave him specific rank, calling him 

 Passer indicus. " It chiefly differs," wrote Jerdon, " from P. 

 domesticus in the greater purity of its colours and in the female 

 being somewhat paler. It is somewhat smaller too than its 

 European congener, the black of the breast of the male is more 

 extended laterally, and the cheeks and sides of the neck are 

 purer white, as are the lower parts generally." The Indian 

 variety has much the same habits as the English one. It is, 

 however, necessary to add fifty per cent, to the impudence of the 

 latter to arrive at a proper estimate of the character of our Indian 

 Sparrow. Moreover, we in the Land of Regrets have his 

 impudence made more apparent to us, since we live so much with 

 open doors and windows. On one occasion I was literally evicted 

 from a hotel in Madras by the Sparrows ! But, stay — I am 

 writing of aviary birds, so have no business to speak of the 

 Sparrow, for I believe that I am almost the only person living 

 that has kept Sparrows in a cage. Most aviculturists think that 

 they see quite enough of Passer domesticus in real life without 

 going out of their way to see more of him. Let us, therefore, 

 pass on to those species which have more right to the title 

 " aviary birds." 



But here again I am confronted by a difficulty. Is the 

 Yellow-throated Sparrow (Gynmorhis flavicollis) ever kept in 

 aviaries ? This is a kind of an aristocratic Sparrow. Its beak is 

 less gross, its figure is less vulgar, and both sexes are set off by a 

 pale yellow spot on the throat, conspicuous in the cock and less 



