204 Kev. F. C. R. Jourdain on the 



it. On climbing the tree I found a single big young Kite in 

 grey down, but could find no Sparrows' nests among the 

 foundations of the Kite's nest. It was interesting to note 

 that the Sparrows only vacated the nest on the return of the 

 Kite, and evidently subsisted on the pickings of the Kite's 

 larder. The mystery of the nest was, however, solved by 

 accident, for on May 29 we happened to be in the same 

 district again. Several pairs of Bee-eaters, Merops apiaster, 

 were breeding in the hard soil, not in steep banks, but in 

 burrows made in almost flat ground. While digging out 

 one of these I was astonished to come across feathers, bits 

 of straw, and all the untidy mess usually associated with a 

 Sparrow's nest, and presently I was able to extract the nest 

 and six typical maroon-coloured Rock-Sparrow's eggs ! Five 

 minutes' watching enabled us to identify the anxious parent 

 as she flew from bush to bush, obviously uneasy. Another 

 bird was carrying building material in its bill, and probably 

 several pairs were breeding close at hand *. Subsequently I 

 obtained another nest at the end of May, Avhich was placed 

 in a hole in a cork-oak, and contained the remarkably large 

 number of 8 eggs. These 14 eggs average in size 215 x 

 15-2 mm.; max. 22-7 X 149 and 21x16, min. 20-3 x 15-8 

 and 22 2 X 145. 



Tlie Sardinian Rock-Sparrow is not a well-defined local 

 race, but is distinctly darker than specimens from the 

 European continent. 



24. Passer iTALi.E (Vieill.). Italian Spai'row. 



Local names: Passcra; Cardamo (Giglioli). A very 

 common resident in the inhabited parts of the island, 

 especially on the low ground. It is, however, absent from 

 some of the hill-villages. Parrot has pointed out that, 

 as a rule, Corsican birds are rather shorter-winged than 

 Italian specimens (Ornith. Jahrbuch, xxi. p. 141). Like 



* The reference in the Orn. Jahrb. xxi. p. 1^9 to nests discovered 

 in the eyrie of tlie Red Kite is due to a misunderstanding of some 

 remarks made by me at the Berlin Ornithological Congress on the 

 parasitic habits of this colony. [F. ('. W. J.] 



