PASSERINE. 267 



tail, 1*87 to 2-25 ; tarsus, 0'62 to 0'68 ; bill at front, 0'37 ; bill from 

 0-43 to 0-5. 



l dusky to dusky-brown, black in the breeding plumage ; 

 irides light-brown ; eyelids leaden-slaty ; legs pale to dusky fleshy- 

 brown. 



Male above : head and ear-coverts grey, with a chesnut stripe 

 from the eye to the nape ; the rest of the plumage maroon, the 

 feathers of the back centred dark ; wings and tail dusky, the 

 feathers pale edged ; beneath sullied brownish-white ; throat 

 black. 



The females, except that they are everywhere paler, a purer 

 white beneath, a lighter and greyer- brown above, with a slightly 

 redder tinge on the lesser wing-coverts and on the lower back, 

 and a rather more conspicuous white upper wing-bar, formed 

 by the tip of the medial wing-coverts ; there is really nothing 

 tangible, except their very much smaller dimensions, by which 

 they can be separated from those of the Common Sparrow. 



In the case of the males, in the winter plumage, not only 

 the small size and paler tints and the narrowness of the black 

 throat stripe not descending on to the breast, enable one to 

 separate them from those of the Common Sparrow, but though 

 the chesnut has almost disappeared from the mantle and rump, 

 a trace of it lingers on the lower back, and the patch behind 

 the ear-coverts remains a prill light chesnut instead of a maroon 

 as in the common species. Stray Feathers, Vol. IX, p. 444. 



The Rufous-backed Sparrow only occurs in Sind, where it is 

 a permanent resident. It had been lost sight of for years, but 

 has recently been rediscovered by Mr. Doig, who also obtained 

 nests and eggs. 



He states that the nests were similar to those of P. domes- 

 ticus but smaller, and were situated in the top of acacia trees, 

 growing in water. 



Passer flavicollis, Franklin. 



711. Jerdon's Birds of India, Vol. II, p. 368; Butler, Guzerat ; 

 Stray Feathers, Vol. Ill, p 497; Deccan, Stray Feathers, 

 Vol. IX, p. 416 ; Murray's Vertebrate Zoology of Sind, p. 184 ; 

 Swinhoe and Barnes, Central India; Ibis, 1885, p. 129. 



THE YELLOW-THROATED SPARROW. 



Length, 5*5 ; expanse, 10 ; wing, 3'4 ; tail, 2 ; tarsus, 07. 



Bill black ; irides brown ; legs cinereous-brown. 



Above ashy-brown ; beneath dirty or brownish- white, more 

 albescent on the vent and under tail-coverts, and white on the 

 chin ; a yellow spot on the middle of the throat ; shoulders and 

 lesser-coverts chesnut ; wing with some white marks on the 

 tertiaries, and two white bands formed by the tips of the coverts. 



The female merely differs in the yellow neck-spot, and the 

 chesnut on the wings being paler than in the male. 



The Yellow-throated Sparrow is a common permanent resident 



