240 PASSER DOMESTICUS. 



tail-coverts white, with an ashy shade on the ear-coverts, sides of neck and 

 the flanks. Iris dark brown ; bill black ; tarsi and feet pale brown. Total 

 length 4-8 inches, culmen 0-45, wing 285, tail 2-3, tarsus 0-7. <? , 17. 2. 01. 

 Shendi (Rothschild and Wollaston). 



Adult female. Differs in the forehead, crown and neck being uniform 

 brown like the upper tail-coverts with an obscure darker shade surrounding 

 the hinder half of the crown, beneath which is a pale sandy shaded band of 

 the same colour as the sides of the upper half of the neck ; another dark 

 brown band passed through the eye and over and behind the ear-coverts ; 

 ear-coverts, cheek and under parts generally very pale ashy brown inclining 

 to white down the centre of the throat and centre of the breast. Total 

 length 4-7 inches, culmen 0-45, wing 2-7, tail 2-2, tarsus 0-7. 5 , 21. 3. 01. 

 Shendi (Rothschild and Wollaston). 



The Common House-Sparrow ranges over Europe, Central 

 and Southern Asia, North and North-east Africa and has 

 established itself on Great Comoro island and Mauritius. 



According to Heuglin, it is a resident along the Blue Nile 

 and in Kordofan, but he did not meet with it in Eastern 

 Abyssinia nor on the White Nile. Brelim gave the name of 

 P. rvfidorsalis to a rather brightly coloured specimen from 

 Khartoum ; but I do not find that the characters hold good 

 in a large series, they can be so nearly matched in English 

 specimens and both forms appear to be equally represented all 

 over Southern Asia. Among the adult male specimens in 

 the British Museum there are, from Mauritius, two typical 

 P. domesticns and one P. rufidorsalis. Of the latter, there is 

 one from Great Comoro island, one from Khartoum and one 

 from Berber, and of the common race one from Nubia and two 

 from Egypt. I have come to the conclusion that it would be 

 wrong to regard P. rufidorsalis as more than a variety of 

 P. domesticns, it having no distinct range, but is more 

 frequently met with in the hot than in the cold climates. 

 The Hon. N. C. Rothschild and Mr. A. F. R. Wollaston have 

 recently brought home, from Shendi on the Nile, twenty-one 

 specimens, all of which they refer to P. rvfidorsalis. 



They write : " This is a southern form of P. domesticns. 



