SISKINS. 



99 



chosen, and in these the nests may be found at 30 feet 

 from the ground, though usually they are at heights 

 of from 12 to 20 feet ; sometimes some old stub is 

 patronised, and then the nest may not be a couple of 

 feet from, the ground. On one occasion I found a nest 

 in a hole in the stem of an old heens bush (Capparis 

 aphiilla), which stem was barely 5 inches in diameter. 



" The nest is generally only a little bundle of dry 

 grass, thickly lined with feathers. If in a mangrove 

 grove much frequented by the Common Green Paroquets, 

 the feathers of these latter are sure to be those chiefly 

 used. Sometimes, however, a more or less cup-shaped 

 nest is formed, fine strips of bark and tow being added 

 to the grass ; and, again, at times it is a regular pad 

 of hair, tow, and wool, with a few feathers, all closely 

 interwoven, and with only a little central hollow. 



" I never found more than four eggs, often only three 

 fully incubated ones, but more may occur. 



"The eggs are dull and glossless, moderately elon- 

 :gated ovals, sometimes pointed towards the little end, 

 sometimes blunt and pyriform. Considering how 

 nearly equal in size the two birds are, it is surprising 

 to find that the eggs of this species average in weight 

 little more than half those of P. domesticus. The 

 ground-colour, where any of it is visible, is greenish 

 white. The eggs are very thickly streaked, smudged, 

 and blotched all over with dingy brown, usually more 

 nearly a mixture of sepia and chocolate-<brown than 

 any other shade I can think of. In some eggs the mark- 

 ings are entirely confluent all over, so as to leave no 

 particle of the ground-colour visible, and in all the 

 eggs I have seen they were so thick as to leave but 

 little of this visible. The very dark dingy appearance 

 of these eggs- is their chief characteristic. 



" The eggs vary less in size than those of the House 

 and Tree Sparrows, and are considerably smaller than 

 either. In length they vary from 0.66 to 0.78. and in 

 "breadth from 0.52 to 0.56, but the average of thirty- 

 four eggs is 0.74 by 0.55 nearly." 



Dr. Russ states that this species has never been im- 

 ported alive into the European market ; but in 1895 

 Mr. Frank Finn presented an example to the London 

 "Zoological Gardens, and it seems likely that the late 

 Mr. Abrahams was acquainted with the bird from the 

 fact that he recognised two allied forms in my pos- 

 session as sexes of the Yellow-throated Sparrow. It is 

 very unlikely that so common an Indian bird would 

 fail to be sometimes imported in batches of birds from 

 Calcutta. 



LESSER ROCK-SPARROW (Petronia dentata). 



Above, generally ruddy mouse-brown, the median 

 and greater wing-coverts with slightly paler edges ; 

 flights and tail-feathers much darker, but with pale 

 edges ; crown normally dark grey (sometimes dark 

 brown at back and with a broad white frontal band) ; 

 lores whitish ; a broad reddish clay-brown eyebrow- 

 streak ; chin, upper half of throat, breast, and under 

 tail-coverts white, shading into pale brown on the 

 sides of the head and throat (sometimes the white runs 

 over on to the front of the face and is limited to 

 the centre of the throat in continuance of the usual 

 pale sulphur patch on the front of the breast) ; 

 abdomen white, faintly washed at the sides with 

 "brown ; under wing-coverts and axillaries ashy-brown ; 

 beak dark horn brown, flesh-coloured towards base of 

 lower mandible ; feet dusky flesh-coloured : irides 

 reddish-brown. Female, according to Von Heuglin. 

 more fulvescent, with cheeks, breast, and flanks washed 

 with fulvous, etc., etc. : but he was probablv describ- 

 ing P. albigularis, which is neither the female nor the 



young of P. dentata, as has been supposed. Habitat 

 N.E. Africa. 



Von Heuglin says that this species is found in pair? 

 or small flocks along the openings in the woodlands 

 or perched on the bushes in the deserts, generally near 

 water, and that the note resembles that of our House 

 Sparrow * ; his assertion that the eggs, which he found 

 in a Weaver-bird's nest, where white was based upon 

 faulty observation, the eggs which he found having 

 doubtless been laid by the Weaver, certainly not by 

 the Sparrow. 



In 1898 two examples of Petronia were sent to me 

 by an unknown friend, whidh were (incorrectly) pro- 

 nounced by Mr. Abrahams to be sexes of the mur- 

 derous Yellow-throated Sparrow. As I have already 

 recorded (The Avicultural Magazine., N.S., Vol. 1, pp. 

 294-298), I turned thisi supposed pair into a flight-cage in 

 the corner of which a prepared Hartz-cage was hung 

 up, and provided them with nesting-materials and 

 cuttle-bone. They built a very neat nest, externally 

 formed of hay, internally lined with feathers and wool ; 

 and, so far as I could judge, since the eggs were hardly 

 ever laid in the nest, but mostly dropped from a perch, 

 the clutch appeared to consist of from five lo six eggs ; 

 as, however, I discovered towards the end of their 

 lives that both birds were laying, it i& quite posisible 

 that three or four may represent the laying of each 

 individual. 



I had no sooner discovered that my supposed pair 

 consisted of two adult hens than both became egg- 

 bound, and P. dentata (the supposed cock-bird) died 

 before it could be treated : I pressed out the egg and 

 discovered it to be exactly of the usual type. The 

 other hen (P. albigularis) recovered for a time, but 

 1903 saw the end of both of them. 



Of the eggs, which were unknown to science, I only 

 succeeded in saving two, one of which I sent to the 

 Natural History Museum. I described them (The Avi- 

 cultural Magazine, I.e.) as follows: "The ground oft/he 

 egg is greenish-white, more or less thickly dotted with 

 dark jbrown ; the larger extremity is always sooty- 

 blackish, exactly as if it had been held in the smoke 

 of a lamp until well blackened ; the extent of the dull 

 black patch varies somewhat, but I have not seen one 

 egg without it among the many which my birds have 

 broken. In shape they are broad ovals, resembling, 

 both in outline and general size, those of the Greater 

 Whitethroat." 



Dr. Russ says : " This bird is not rare in the trade, 

 but is only imported a few at a time." The remainder 

 of his remarks are chiefly abusive; indeed, he gives 

 the poor Sparrow a very bad character. Undoubtedly 

 my two hens, which were at least representatives of 

 different races, if not species, often quarrelled rather 

 viciously. 



WHITE-THROATED ROCK-SPARROW 

 (Petronia albigularis). 



Very similar to P. dentata, but the crown, back, 

 and sides of neck uniform brown ; eyebrow streak' 

 sandy buff ; mantle streaked with blackish ; median and 

 greater wing-coverts with pale tips ; flights with broad 

 sandy-brownish borders to the inner webs : the yellow 

 throat spot ill defined, more diffused than in P. 

 dentata: abdomen less white. Habitat, N.E Africa* 



This Sparrow was long believed to be the young of 

 P. dentata. and it is still so regarded in Captain 

 Shelley's "Birds of Africa," Vol. IH., p. 262; but the 

 fact that I kept the two together for five years, that 

 the supposed young plumage never changed, and that 



* It is, however, decidedly sharper in sound. A. G. B 



