PASSER. 159 



of the post upon which the lamp rests, and was so small tliat the 

 hen birtl had some difficulty in passing in and out. The heat 

 during tlie day inside of the post must have been almost unendur- 

 able, which would account for the old bird seldom being found 

 on the nest. I may add that the lamp was lit regularly every 

 evening and burnt all night. Subsequently I found several other 

 lamp-posts in camp occupied by a pair of these Sparrows. 



" On the 3rd May I took three incubated eggs from a nest in a 

 hole of a mud-wall ; and on revisiting the iiest on the 10th May I 

 found it contained three more fresh eggs." 



Mr. J. Davidson, writing on the birds of Western Khandesh, 

 says: — "It is the commonest bird in the Satpuras, breeding in the 

 hot weather. Out of at least a dozen nests of which 1 have notes, 

 in only one case was there more than two eggs." 



And this gentleman and J\Ir. AVeuden further remark : — " Kare, 

 but Davidson found it breeding in the Sholapoor Districts in 

 April." 



The eggs are dull and glossless, moderately elongated ovals, 

 sometimes pointed towards the little end, sometimes blunt and 

 pyriform. Considei-ing how nearly equal in size the two birds are, 

 it is surprising to find that the eggs of this species average in 

 weight little more than half those of P. domesticus. The ground- 

 colour, w'here any of it is visible, is greenish white. The eggs are 

 very thickly streaked, smudged, and blotched all over with dingy 

 brown, usually more nearly a mixture of sepia and chocolate-brown 

 than any other shade I can think of. In some eggs the markings 

 are entirely confluent all over, so as to leave no particle of the 

 ground-colour visible, and in all the eggs I have seen they were so 

 thick as to leave but little of this visible. The very dark dingy 

 appearance of these eggs is their chief characteristic. 



The eggs vary less in size than those of the House- and Tree- 

 Sparrows, and are considerably smaller than either. In length 

 they vary from 0-66 to 0-78, and in breadth from 0-52 to 0-56 ; but 

 the average of thirty-four eggs is 0'74 by 0*55 nearly. 



776. Passer domesticus (Linn.). The House-Sparrow. 



Passer iudicus {J.^- S.), Jerd. B. hid. ii, p. 362 : Hume, Rouili Bra ft 

 N. ^' E. no. 70(3. 



It was ^\■ith extreme hesitation that I followed " my betters " 

 in assigning a distinct specific title to our Indian House-Sparrow 

 in the former edition of this work. BetvA^een ourselves I don't 

 believe in its distinctness. I have some "truly rural" French 

 and English Sparrows — none of your London or JNTewcastle, black- 

 countiy, or manufacturing districts street Arabs, but real, unso- 

 phisticated rosy peasants that match some of our Indian birds 

 fairly. 



But what is in a name ? Call him domesticus or indicus, it 

 doesn't alter his depraved nature, does not make him one whit less 



