454 SOUTHERN EUROPE 



grey, the forehead and throat yellowish, the flanks grey, the under-parts unspotted, 

 and the wings marked with a pair of yellowish bars. 



The rock-sparrow (Petronia stulta) inhabits southern Europe 

 ' from Spain to Asia Minor, the southern coast of the Mediterranean 

 as well as Madeira and the Canaries, and central Asia as far east as Pekin. 

 Haunting the ruins on the Rhine and Moselle and other German localities in small 

 numbers, this bird frequents the clifl's of Spain in swarms, and also breeds in numbers 

 in hollow cork-trees in Servia. Although preferring lonely places, it never goes 

 far into forests, and avoiding the plains in winter, appears with other birds near 

 villages. In manner it is very sparrow-like ; the flocks when on trees making a 

 prodigious noise, each member continually wagging its tail, and bristling up its 

 head-feathers. It also eats the same food as the common sparrow, preferring oily 

 to mealy seeds ; but it is a far better singer. In length the rock-sparrow measures 

 about 6 inches. A light brown stripe over the eye and a white spot on the inner 

 side of the grey tail-feathers, are two of its conspicuous features. The back is 

 brown marked with darker brown and white, and a large yellow patch on the 

 centre of the chest adds brightness to the whole plumage. 



Azure-winged. I Q certain districts of Spain and Portugal the crow tribe is 



Magpie. represented by the handsome azure-winged magpie (Cyanopica 

 cooki), a species remarkably local in its distribution, being unknown elsewhere, 

 while there is but one other member of the same genus, and that an inhabitant of 

 distant China and Japan. This lively bird has a grey back, black head, blue tail, and 

 black and white wings, so that its colouring is decidedly conspicuous. In its long 

 and graduated tail it resembles the magpies, but the beak is straight and jay-like, 

 although without a hook at the point ; and the nests, which are built in settlements, 

 are of the same general type as those of the jays. 



Dwarf Horned A small representative of the eared or horned owls (Scops gill), 



owl. which has its head-quarters in the south of Europe, takes its Latin title 



from its mournful cry, which is heard only at night. Only after sunset does this owl 

 venture out ; it flies low, somewhat in the manner of a falcon, when hunting for prey, 

 which includes mice, moles, birds, and beetles, and other large insects. During the 

 daytime this bird sleeps safely concealed in holes or in thick -leaved trees, with its 

 body pressed close to the stem or hidden amid the foliage, and always sits so still 

 that its presence is never revealed except by accident. In central Europe it is by 

 no means unfamiliar, but it does not range far north, and is unknown in Scandi- 

 navia, although occasionally straggling to the British Isles. In Switzerland and 

 lower Austria the nest is sometimes found in May with the usual five or six round 

 white eggs. The species is abundant in Styria, the Tyrol, Carinthia, Carniola, 

 Croatia, and Hungary, and is still more numerous in Spain, the south of France, 

 and especially Turkey, Greece, and the Archipelago, noticeably in the island of 

 Naxos, where it nests in the scaffold-holes of houses, whilst elsewhere it builds in 

 holes in trees and clefts in rocks. The breeding-range extends into North 

 Africa. In winter it migrates as far south as Senegambia and Sennaar, and in 

 summer is met with as far east as Turkestan. It may be found in all kinds of 

 country, although most frequently among rocks, as it always avoids large forests. 

 This species, which is under 8 inches in length, is somewhat like a small eagle-owl 



