PASSER ARCUATUS. 479 
eggs vary wonderfully in size and colour. The male bird is rather 
larger than the female.” A single specimen has been procured 
by Senor Anchieta in Benguela, in 1867: native name Kimbolio. 
The “ Mossie,” like its cousin, the English bird, is essentially 
a “cit.” In the country you certainly find him, but never away 
from human habitations. He seems to think man only builds houses 
for him to dwell in; only grows corn for him to eat; only plants 
trees for him to roost in. The airs he gives himself are amusing ; 
and you feel inclined to forgive his peculations out of sheer admira- 
tion for the boldness with which he executes the theft. With the 
earliest dawn he is up and doing, and his chirrup arouses you from 
your slumbers ; but as he has not got to dress, and you have, he 
is off to visit your farm-produce before you are. As he has wings, 
he visits all your property (not to count your neighbours’), and 
levies toll where he likes; and you find him in the evening, when 
you reach home, tired and footsore, there before you, and with 
unabated vigour fighting for the snuggest and warmest berth 
under the eaves, or the cosiest branch upon your pet oak-tree, 
Well, don’t be hard on him! He will in his season rid you of 
thousands of caterpillars and grubs; and if your “eldest hope” 
is old enough to begin to shoot, he will do no great harm in thinning 
their numbers in the autumn, and manufacturing puddings for his 
brothers and sisters with the bodies of the slain. Sparrows build 
in holes in walls, or in trees, indiscriminately. If they select the 
former, they accumulate a lot of sticks as a groundwork, and fill 
up with straw and feathers. If they build in trees, they construct 
a large ball of straw, and line it with feathers. Their eggs, three 
to five in number, are light verditer, with brown blotches ; but they 
vary much in shape and colour. 
Male.—Top of head, cheeks, chin, throat, and breast black ; 
back of head and neck brown; back, rump, and shoulders rufous ; 
wing and tail feathers brown, with hght margins; a white stripe 
extends from over the eye, round the back of the cheeks, and 
nearly unites on the throat; under parts dirty white. 
_ Female.—Less brightly coloured. Length, 6” 6”; wing, 3” 4” ; 
tail, 2’ 7’. “The bill is black in the male, and livid brown in the 
female ; the legs and toes are olive-brown, darker in the male than 
in the female; the iris is a very dark brown” (Andersson). 
Fig. Buff, Pl, Hnl. 230, fig. 1. 
