62 BRITISH BIRDS. 
Genus PASSER. 
The genus Passer is another of the genera of Brisson which are addi- 
tional to those of Linnzus, and have been so universally adopted that 
an exception to the rules of the Stricklandian Code had to be made in their 
favour. It was, however, so clumsily done that, according to the letter 
of the law as it stands, the genera additional to those of Linnzus of all 
the other contemporaries of the great Swede are equally admissible. 
Linneus included the Sparrows in his genus Fringilla; and as Brisson 
called the Chaffinch Passer fringilla, that bird has been accepted as the 
type. Brisson’s genus Passer, which he established in 1760 (‘ Ornitho- 
logia, iii. p. 72), is synonymous with the genus Fringilla of Linnzus, . 
except that he removed the Goldfinches into a new genus which he called 
Carduelis. The fact that Brisson placed the Sparrow at the head of his 
genus Passer, though he did not adopt his usual custom and call it Passer 
passer only, but gave it the trinomial name of Passer passer domesticus, 
has caused most writers to regard the Sparrow as the type of the genus 
Passer, thus making it legally additional to, instead of synonymous with, 
the genus Fringilla of Linneus. 
It is not known that there are any structural characters by which the 
Sparrows may be distinguished from the other genera of Finches. Their 
principal characteristic is that the general colour of the plumage is brown 
of different shades, occasionally varied with black and white. The bill 
resembles very much that of the Rose-Finches, but is somewhat more 
elongated. 
The Sparrows inhabit the whole of the Old World south of the Arctic 
circle, with the exception of the Australian Region. One species has been 
recently introduced into the latter region, as well as into the New World. 
Wallace includes thirty-four species in this genus, of which seven occur in 
the Western Palearctic Region, two of these being residents in the British 
Islands. 
The Sparrows are essentially birds of the plains. They are practically 
omnivorous, and possess very little powers of song. ‘They are more or less 
gregarious in their habits. They build in holes, or form domed nests in 
trees and bushes; and their eggs are whitish in ground-colour, profusely 
spotted with brown of various shades, principally at the large end. 
