VOl l9lf XH ] Phillips, Birds of Sinai. 287 



Palestine. Its coloration is described as the same as that of fraterculus. 

 All these forms are certainly poorly marked, but Sinai birds can at least 

 be told from Palestine ones by their larger bills. It appears somewhat 

 doubtful whether a mountain and a desert form can exist side by side in 

 Sinai for there would be apt to be a seasonal movement up and down the 

 mountains. 



Fringillid^:. 



Chloris chloris chlorotica (Bp.). Palestine Green Finch. Eight; 

 Mt. Hermon region, May 22- June 7. 



Carduelis carduelis carduelis (Linn.). Goldfinch. — Three; Petra, 

 April 27; Ammik, Syria, June 6. 



Petronia petronia puteicola (Festa). Palestine Rock Sparrow. — 

 Four; Petra, April 27-29; Rasheya, Syria, May 21. 



Carpospiza brachydactyla (Bp.). Desert Rock Sparrow. — One cT, 

 Rasheya, Syria, May 21. 



Acanthis cannabina fringillirostris (Bp. and Schleg.). Eastern 

 Linnet. — Seven; Mt. Hermon region, May 24-25. 



Passer domesticus indicus Jardin & Selby. Eastern House Spar- 

 row. — One 6 71 ; Tafeileh, Palestine, May 2. Wing 75 mm., cheeks pure 

 white. This specimen is too small for biblicus of Palestine and Syria. It 

 appears to be typical indicus. The head cap is very dark grey as in all old 

 birds. 



The exact range of P. d. indicus is still in doubt. Hartert thought that 

 southern Arabian specimens belonged to this form, which extends over 

 India, Persia and China, but becomes intermediate to P. d. domesticus in 

 the Transcaspian region. 



Lorenz and Hellmayr (Denkschrif akad. der Wissenschaften, 1907, p. 

 106) describe a new subspecies of house sparrow from southern Arabia, 

 east of Aden. From their description I cannot see that this is anything 

 more than an early winter plumage of indicus. It certainly is very close 

 to indicus and differs only in being " brighter." 



Zedlitz, 1912, in his work on Sinai birds (Jour, fur Ornith., 1912, p. 566), 

 takes up this question. He quotes Le Roi as saying that Sinai sparrows 

 do not conform to biblicus or indicus and still less to the niloticus of Nicoll & 

 Bonhote. Zedlitz's own single specimen from Sinai and five others col- 

 lected by Koenig, were, he says, small and not like biblicus. 



He arranges the sparrows of Western Asia as follows: 



1. Sinai and southern Palestine. Much smaller than biblicus d 1 . 

 Wing, 80; 9 , 74-79. Color whiter than niloticus, ear coverts grey. 



2. P. biblicus; confined to Syria and Palestine. Large. Wing, 82-84. 

 Ear coverts light grey. 



3. Asia Minor Sparrow. (Eight specimens.) Wing, 78-81. Ear 

 coverts almost white, or extremity light grey. 



4. P. indicus; India & Persia, limits not known. Size small, like Sinai 



