PASSER DOMESTICUS. 239 



head ; under surface of the body nearly pure white. Iris brown, bill black, 

 legs and feet fleshy horn colour. Total length 54 inches, culmen 05, win^ 

 2-9, tail 2-4, tarsus 0-7. $ , 5. 12. 98. Socotra, 1,400 feet (Grant and 

 Forbes). 



Adult female. Very like P. insularis, but with the under parts almost 

 white. Total length 5-4 inches, culmen 0-5, wing 2-7, tail 22, tarsus 0-7. 

 ? , 22. 2. 89. Socotra. 



The Ald-el-Kuri Sparrow is a native of an island of that 

 name which is situated in the Indian Ocean about half way 

 between Socotra and the extreme eastern corner of Somaliland. 



Here Messrs. Grant and Forbes, who discovered this well 

 marked species, procnred a good series. It is a small, very- 

 pale, representative of P. ins^daris, somewhat intermediate 

 between that bird and the Indian P. pijrrhonotus, which is well 

 figured in the (!!atalogue of Birds (xii. pi. 5). 



Passer domesticus. 



Fringilla domestica, Linn. S. N. i. p. 323 (1766). 



Passer domesticus, Sharpe, Cat. B. M. xii. p. 307 (1888) Nubia; Hartert, 



Kat. Vog, Mus. Senck. p. 60 (1891) Kordofan ; Shelley B. Afr. I. 



No. 258 (1896). 

 Passer rufidorsalis, Brehm, Naum. 1856, p. 376 Khartoum; Witherby, 



Ibis, 1901, p. 246 Omdurman ; Eothschild and Wollaston, Ibis, 



1902, p. 9, pi. 1, fig. 2 egg. 



Adult male. Forehead and crown ashy grey, the hinder half surrounded 

 by a broad chestnut shaded chocolate band which is sometimes much mottled 

 with ashy grey on the nape and hind neck ; mantle rufous brown with 

 broad black shaft-stripes ; remainder of back, upper tail-coverts and the 

 tail uniform brown inclining to grey on the middle back. Wings darker 

 brown with the lesser-coverts deep rufous ; median-coverts white with 

 their basal half and generally the shafts black, remainder of the feathers 

 with rufous brown edges with rarely any trace of white on the greater- 

 coverts ; under surface of quills brown with their inner margins whitish like 

 the axillaries and under wing-coverts. Fore part of sides of head, feathers 

 beneath the eye, chin and a broad band down the throat jet black, the 

 feathers of the latter part with whitish edges mostly towards the crop ; 

 ear-coverts, sides of upper neck, sides of throat, the breast and under 



