PASSER. 161 



where, lohen completed, it was cousiderecl a curious ornament. Till 

 tlieu, however, the drawing-room was pt-rpetually like a stable, 

 from the quantities of straw deposited on the carpet. The wonder 

 is that the nest was ever built on its site at all, for there was no 

 deer's head with the horns, and it did not seem possible that the 

 nest could have come there except by being constructed on some 

 foundation, and then, when complete and compact, being placed 

 between the horns. 



" A favourite place for Sparrows to build in Bombay is in the 

 globe-shaped hollow at the top of the iron posts of the street lamps, 

 exactly under the glass shade. The hollow is connnodious enough, 

 and the neck or mouth is narrow, so the place is admirably adapted 

 for the Sparrow's purpose, but must be like a furnace during the 

 heat of the day. Besides, a man goes up twice every day to clean 

 and attend to tlie lamp, and remains for a minute or two busthug 

 and fumbling about within 4 inches of the nest. Then, again, the 

 gas is blazing all night with a glare that would astonish any bird 

 more susceptible than Passer domesticusr 



The eggs exactly resemble those of our English House-Sparrow, 

 but possibly average smaller. They are typically somewhat 

 elongated ovals and but little pointed, but, as in all other species, 

 varieties occur, and broad oval eggs, pointed and pyriform ones, 

 are seen. The ground-colour is either greenish, greyish, or yel- 

 lowish white, or sometimes a pale stone-colour. The markings 

 are most commonly close frecklings, fine strife, or smudgy streaks ; 

 but in a certain number of eggs the markings are spots, specks, 

 and blotches pretty sharply defined. The colour of the markings 

 varies — sometimes sepia-, sometimes olive-, sometimes yellowish, 

 and sometimes purplish brown ; whichever shade it be, it is 

 generally dull and dingy; and besides these primary markings 

 many eggs exhibit pale inky-purple clouds and spots, which seem 

 to underlie the brown markings. I have one egg which I took 

 near Jodhpoor — a uniform pale fawn or stone-colour, with, for its 

 only markings, a long, fine, intricately jagged black line near the 

 big end, such as one often sees on the eggs of the Yellow- 

 ammer. As a rule the eggs have very little gloss, but here and 

 there one somewhat more glossy may be met with. In, I think, 

 about half the eggs there is a more or less marked tendency to 

 form a blotchy, mottled, ill-defined cap at the large end, and in 

 some this is very conspicuous. 



In some birds whose eggs as a body vary excessively, you at 

 any rate find all the eggs of each clutch of the same type. This, 

 however, is not at all the case with Sparrows ; on the contrary 

 almost every clutch contains at least two types — a very light and 

 a very dark one. 



The eggs vary very much in size, in length from 0*6 to 0-88, 

 and in breadth from 0-58 to 0-65 ; the average, however, of fifty- 

 seven eggs is 0"81 by 0'6 *. 



* I have omitted nuiuerou3 notes that are scattered throughout 'Stray 

 Feathers' regarding the nidificatioii of the House-Sparrow, ai Mr. Huiue and 

 Mr. B. Aitken appear to have said all tliat is necessary on the subject.— Ed. 

 YOL. II. 11 



