318 HISTORY OF THE EUROPEAN FAUNA. 



North Africa ; and its range extends eastward to 

 the Himalayas, China, and Eastern Siberia. If any 

 doubt still existed as to the Asiatic origin of the 

 Choughs, it may be noted that the only two other 

 closely allied genera, viz., Corcorax and Podoces, live 

 in Australia and Central Asia respectively. 



There are two other birds to which I should like 

 to refer. These are the Rock Sparrow and the Alpine 

 Snow Finch. The first of these (Petronza stultd) is 

 by no means peculiar to the Alps. It is the only 

 species of the genus inhabiting Europe; and besides 

 the Alps it occurs in Southern Europe generally, 

 and ranges as far west as the Canaries and Madeira. 

 Eastward it is not found beyond Central Asia. Of 

 the remaining five species of Petronia, two occur in 

 Asia (including India) and three in Africa. Whether 

 the genus is African or Asiatic is immaterial for our 

 purpose, since, in any case, the only European species 

 came to us from the east with the Oriental migration. 

 The distribution of the Alpine Snow Finch (Monti- 

 fringilla nivalis] is very similar to that of the birds we 

 have just been considering. It inhabits the Alps up 

 to a great height, but occurs also on the Pyrenees and 

 other South European mountain ranges as far east as 

 Palestine, where again it is found in the Lebanon. 

 The genus Montifringilla has seventeen other species. 

 Twelve of these live in Central Asia and Japan, 

 extending as far north as Kamtchatka, while five 

 inhabit Western North America right down to 

 Mexico. There is every probability that in this case 



