PASSER JACtOENSIS. 241 



It might be described as a small and very bright House- 

 Sparrow, with a very bright chestnut mantle. The female 

 can only be distinguished from the same sex of the House- 

 Sparrow by its smaller size. It was first described by Brehm 

 (Naumannia, 1856, p, 377), from specimens obtained at 

 Khartoum ; Emin Pasha subsequently found it at Lado, 

 a long way further south. At Shendi it is exceedingly 

 common, especially frequenting the patches of cultivation 

 round the houses on the river-bank. In its habits it is very 

 much like our House-Sparrow, and its chirping note is quite 

 indistinguishable. We found several nests of this bird in 

 March : they were loose structures of dry grass and feathers, 

 and were placed in crevices of the hard mud bank on the west 

 side of the Nile. The eggs resemble those of other Sparrows, 

 but are devoid of all gloss ; they are of a whitish buff ground 

 colour, speckled all over with rusty brown and greyish brown, 

 and having some underlying mauve spots : the spots and 

 patches form a vague zone about the thick end. They are 

 considerably smaller than those of P. domesticiis. The greatest 

 number of egg's found in one nest was three." 



DO 



Passer jagoensis. 



Pyrgita jagoensis, Goukl, P. Z. S. 1837, p. 77 Santiago Isl. 



Passer jagoensis, Fiaser, P. Z. S. 1843, p. 52 ; Bolle, J. f. 0. 1856, p. 31 ; 



Sharps, Cat. B. M. xii. p. 323 (1888) Cape Verde Isl. ; Shelley, B. 



Afr. I. No. 261 (1896) ; Alexander, Ibis. 1898, pp. 77, 84, 92, 97, 99, 



104, 107, 111, 115, 280 Cape Verde Isl; Nehrkorn, Kat. Eiers. 



p. 109 (1899) egg. 

 Passer erythrophrys, Bp. Consp. i. p. 510 (1850). 

 Passer hansmanni, Bolle, J. f. O. 1856, p. 22 Cape Verde Isl. 

 Passer brancoensis. Oust. Ann. Sc. Nat. Zool. (6) xvi. art. 5, p. 2 (1883) 



Gape Verde Isl. 

 Adnlt male. Crown and back of neck dusky ash ; a broad pale cinnamon 

 eyebrow expands behind the ear-coverts, covering the sides of the upper 

 neck ; the eyebrow in front of the eye to the nostril white ; remainder of 



(May, 1002. ^*^ 



