262 PETRONIA DENTATA 



ash," Heugl. Total length 4-5 to 4-9 inches, culmen 0-45, wing 2-9 to 3-1, 

 tail 2-0, tarsus 0-6. Gambaga ; J , 29. 7. 98. Abyssinia ; ? , 31. 7. 68- 

 ^ 2 , 15. 8. 68. 



Young. Differs in liaving the crown, back and sides of neck uniform 

 brown and the eyebrow sandy buff ; mantle partially mottled with blackish 

 brown and broad pale or whitish ends to the median and greater- coverts and 

 the inner webs of the quills somewhat broadly edged with rufous buff. 

 Gambaga ; S , 9. 1. 99. White Nile ; ? , 5. 00. Abyssinia ; ^ , 2i. 7. 68. 

 Five other specimens in the British Museum are intermediate between the 

 adults and young described, but none of these have any grey on the head. 



Were it not that the specimens have been sexed by their collectors, one 

 would have expected the grey crowned birds with the rufous eyebrow and 

 uniform backs to have been adult males and the others adult females and 

 immature birds. Against their being specifically distinct, is that both forms 

 range across northern tropical Africa from 0° to 40° E. long, and have been 

 found at the same places. 



The Lesser Rock-Sparrow inhabits northern Tropical 

 Africa between aboiit 9° and 38° N. lat. 



The occurrence of this species in West Africa was first 

 made known to us by Dr. P. Rendall, who procured it close 

 to Bathurst on the Gambia river, and Sig. Fea has obtained 

 specimens on the Bissagos islands at Bulamo and Bissao. 

 At Gambaga, about 250 miles due north of Cape Coast Castle, 

 Captain W. Giffard collected a male and two females in 

 January, August and November, 1898, and Col. H. P. 

 North cott has presented to the British Museum a male and 

 an apparently young female killed at the same place in 

 January and July. Captain Boyd Alexander has, more re- 

 cently, met with the species at Walwali, Gambaga and Karaga, 

 so these birds must be not only resident but also plentiful 

 in this district. 



These Sparrows cross the continent, for they range over 

 Abyssinia generally, but I cannot trace them further south 

 than 9° N. lat. In this latitude, on the Nile near the mouth 

 of the Seraf river, Captain H. M. Dunn obtained a specimen, 

 and Lord Lovat shot one at Maritclii in South Abyssinia. In 



