PASSER SHELLEYI. 247 



the head of the wild banana," and later, he adds : " The habits 

 of this species are similar to those of the European House- 

 Sparrow." Dr. Ansorge has obtained the species at Nairobi, 

 and Mr. Jackson in the Kikuyu country. They wander east- 

 ward into Somali-land, where Mr. Hawker found them in 

 January, and writes : " This bird was not common, and I saw 

 only a very few of them. They did not come round my camp 

 at Jifa Mcuir until I had been there for several weeks." 



Heuglin met with these Sparrows in small family parties 

 near the villages in central Kordofan, only in the beginning of 

 the rainy season. 



The Kordofan specimen originally described by Heuglin 

 was without a label, apparently a female, as it had the throat 

 grey. For this bird Dr. Finsch in 1871 proposed the name of 

 Passer cordqfanicus, to distinguish the North-east African form 

 from its southern ally P. motitensis. 



An egg from Masai-land is described by Mr. Nehrkorn as 

 white with large irregularly shaped violet grey marks and 

 measuring 0'84 x 0'58. 



Passer shelleyi. (PI. 27, fig. 2.) 



Passer shelleyi, Sharpe, Ibis, 1891, p. 256 Lado, Shelley, B. Afr. 

 I. No. 264 (1896). 



Passer rufocinctus (nee Fisch. and Eeichen.) Shelley, P. Z. S. 1888, 

 p. 36 Lado. 



Type. Very similar in plumage to the adult male of P. cordo- 

 fanicus, but differs in the hinder half of the ear-coverts being jet black and 

 contrasting sharply with the pure white of the front of the ear-coverts, 

 cheeks and sides of throat. Bill dusky brown ; iris umber brown ; feet 

 flesh-colour. Total length in the flesh 5-6 inches, culmen 0-4, wing 275, 

 tail 1-8, tarsus 0-7. c? , 9. 4. 84. Lado. 



Shelley's Sparrow inhabits the Upper White Nile district. 

 The type, an adult male, was procured by Emin at Lado on the 



