236 PASSER ITALIC. 



at La Catrina, and writes : " The favourite resort of these 

 birds is a grove of tall coconut trees, in the tops of which 

 they build their nests, and owing to this the species has gained 

 the name of ' Coconut-bird ' from the natives. The flight is 

 very straight and steady, and a clear musical chirp is often 

 uttered on the wing. They cause a considerable amount 

 of damage to the oranges, in which they drill big holes. The 

 number of males predominates over the females to a large 

 extent." In the adjoining island of Maio he found "small 

 clumps of acacia-bushes, in the valley close to the sea, had 

 their upper branches crammed with bulky domed nests, hardly 

 a foot of space intervening between them." 



In North-east Africa the Spanish Sparrow has been 

 recorded by Hartmann from the Upper Blue Nile, but Heuglin 

 did not meet with it further south than Ambukol. It probably 

 does not remain to breed in Abyssinia, for when I was in 

 Egypt it appeared to me that it left that country early in 

 February. 



Passer itaiiae. 



Fringilla italise, Vieill. N. Diet. Hist. Nat. xii. p. 190 (1817). 

 Passer itaiiae, Sharpe, Cat. B. M. xii. p. 315 (1888) ; Shelley, B. Afr. I. 

 No. 259 (1896). 



Adult male. Similar to P. domesticus, but differs in the forehead, crown 

 and back of neck being uniform chestnut, sometimes with a few buff margins 

 to these feathers ; a partial narrow white eyebrow ; entire ear-coverts and 

 sides of the neck white. Total length 5'8 inches, culmen 0'45, wing 3'1, 

 tail 2-4, tarsus 0-8. 3" , 20. 11. 98. Florence. 



The Italian House-Sparrow replaces, to a great extent, our 

 Common House-Sparrow in Italy, and has been said to range 

 into Palestine and through Egypt to the Blue Nile. 



Riippell records the species as being abundant in Egypt 

 and Nubia, and according to Heuglin it ranges to as far south 



