248 PASSER ARCUATUS. 



Upper AVhite Nile, April 9, 1884, and is now in the British 

 Museum. This is all that is at present known regarding the 

 species. 



Passer arcuatus. 



Fringilla arcuata, Gm. S. N. i. p. 912 (1788). 



Passer arcuatus, Sharpe, Cat. B. M. xii. p. 333 (1888) Damara, Cape 

 Town, Traiismal ; Biittik. Notes Leyd. Mus. 1888, p. 240 

 Mossamcdcs ; Sousa Jorn. Lisb. 1886, p. 167 Benguda; Fleck, 

 J. f. 0. 1894, p. 410 Damara, Great Namaqua; Shelley, B. Afr. I. 

 No. 269 (1896) ; Nehrkorn, Kat. Eiers, p. 109 (1899) egg ; Stark, 

 Faun. S. Afr. B. i. p. 160 (1900) ; Haagner, Ibis, 1901, pp. 15, 16, 192 

 Transvaal. 



Adult male. Head and neck jet black, with a broad patch of white 

 surrounding the hinder half of the ear-coverts and extending over the side 

 of the neck and nape, and encroaches on to the black of the lower throat 

 above the crop ; the black of the crown shades off into ashy grey on the 

 hinder neck and front of the mantle ; remainder of the back and the lesser 

 wiug-coverts chestnut, with the upper tail-coverts dusky black ; wing 

 mostly blackish brown with pale edges to the feathers, broadest on the inner 

 ones ; median coverts with white ends, and the pale edges of the greater 

 coverts and the inner secondaries incline to white towards their ends ; inner 

 lining of the wings blackish, with the axillaries and most of the coverts 

 white, and some whitish inner edges to the quills. Tail black, with 

 the edges of the feathers pale brown inclining to rufous at their ends. 

 Under surface of body white with a partial shade of ash on the flanks. 

 Sides of head, throat and entire crop, jot black. Total length 6-2 inches, 

 culmen 0-5, wing 3-0, tail 2-5, tarsus 085. Cape (Butler). 



Adult female. Differs from the male in the dark parts of the head and 

 throat being ashy grey and the broad white incomplete eyebrow being 

 separated from the white on the sides of the neck by a band of ashy grey 

 behind the ear-coverts. 



The Cape Sparrow ranges from Benguela to the Cape of 

 Good Hope and into Natal and the Transvaal. 



The most northern range known to me for this species is 

 the town of Benguela, where, according to Anchieta, it is called 

 by the natives " Embolio." In Mossamedes Van der Kellen 

 obtained a pair. To tlie south of the Cunene Mr. Fleck found 



