THE FINCHES 1567 



plumage, we never yet met with a white or pied specimen of the tree sparrow. The 

 adult is fawn colored above, the feathers of the mantle having ashy edgings and 

 broad black streaks; while the lesser wing coverts are uniform chestnut; the 

 median wing coverts black, with broad white tips forming a wing bar; the chin 

 black; the cheeks white, spotted with black; and the under parts ashy. 



The Spanish sparrow (P. hispaniolensis} replaces the English bird in 

 many parts of the Mediterranean region, including Sardinia, Corsica, 

 Sicily, and Malta, nesting in the walls of houses and the crevices 

 of rocks. It is abundant in Algeria, especially among the reeds in the salt 

 marshes; and Mr. O. Salvin gives the following notes upon its habits in the Atlas, 

 observing that it "is found in great numbers during the breeding season among the 

 tamarisk thickets on the Chemoria and in the high sedge at Zana. The Arabs 

 destroy the eggs, nest, and young wherever they find them, as their great numbers 

 do much damage to the crops of corn. The nests are placed as thickly as they can 

 stand, the whole colony, consisting of perhaps one hundred pairs occupying only 

 five or six trees. The noise and ceaseless chattering proceeding from one of these 

 sparrow towns can easily be imagined; and guided by the sound alone, one may 

 walk directly to the spot from a considerable distance. One Sunday morning four 

 Arabs came to our tent, and, gravely sitting down in a row, opened the hoods of 

 their burnooses and displayed eight hundred or a thousand sparrow eggs, which 

 they arranged in four heaps before them, and remained in their sitting posture con- 

 templating them with evident satisfaction. We were rather taken by surprise, 

 but reserved the best for our collections, leaving the rest for omelets." The egg 

 of the Spanish sparrow is somewhat smaller than that of the house sparrow, white 

 in ground color, blotched and streaked with dark gray. The male has the crown 

 and nape dark chestnut; the back black, streaked with cream color; the cheeks and 

 eye stripe pure white; the lesser wing coverts chestnut, tipped with white; and the 

 throat and upper breast deep black. The female is dull brown. 



A well-known bird in many parts of South Africa is the Cape 

 sparrow (P. diffusus}, which takes up its abode near dwelling houses, 

 and reproduces exactly the habits of the European house sparrow. In some districts 

 the Cape sparrows build their nests in low, thorny bushes; but they are equally 

 partial to holes in walls and the eaves of thatched roofs. The nest is a large struc- 

 ture loosely put together, consisting of sticks, straws, and feathers and lined with wool; 

 the eggs being light green in ground color, blotched with brown. Having all the 

 pert ways of its European relative, the Cape sparrow is partial to com, but also con- 

 sumes many insects. The adult male has the crown, throat, and breast black; the 

 back of the head and neck brown; the back and rump rufous; a white eye stripe 

 running backward from above the eye; the wings and tail brown; and the lower 

 parts dirty white. 



_ . _. . The type of this small group of little finches possesses a short, hard, 



Serin Finches . . .... . , . 



conical bill, with the upper mandible slightly exceeding the lower; the 



wings being moderate in length and the tail rather deeply forked. The metatarsus 

 is slender, and scutellate in front, while the toes are small. Yellow usually pre- 

 dominates in the plumage of the serins; the females generally having the flanks 



