PASSER PYRRHONOTUS, BYLTH. 443 



Fe 



As to colours of soft parts : — " Irides in all stages and sexes 

 the same, viz., light brown, pupil black, eyelids leaden slatey. 



u Bill in young bird dusky at tip of upper mandible ; rest 

 of upper and whole of lower mandible a fleshy pink ; as the 

 bird gets older the upper and lower mandibles get more dusky, 

 until in the fully adult bird the whole bill is deep dusky brown, 

 only the base of the lower mandible having a faint fleshy tinge. 



" Tarsi and toes in young birds a pale fleshy brown, and in 

 old birds a dusky fleshy brown. 



" Claws dusky. 



11 Soles of feet a dirty pale yellow ; wings reach to within 1*25 

 of end of tail. Measurements given with specimens were all 

 taken in the flesh." 



As to habits : — " I have never as yet met them at any distance 

 from water ; they keep generally in small flocks of five or six ; 

 once only have I come on a flock of 15 or 20. Their food appa- 

 rently (from dissection) consists of seeds and insects. There is a 

 small dense creeper which covers the tamarisk bushes growing 

 in the water, and which has its seeds contained in a long thin 

 pod similar to a French bean, only thinner ; when unripe it is 

 of a reddish purple colour. These seeds seem to be just now 

 (December) the principal food of this Sparrow ; when not feeding 

 on this they are picking up food of some kind along the edge 

 of the water, or searching for insects among the dried branches 

 of withered old babool trees in the water. For a long time 

 I could not hear them utter any note, though my boatman 

 could and got me numerous shots by listening for this chirrup. 

 At last I heard it ; it is very similar to that of the common 

 Sparrow, but very faint. The nests I found, three in number, 

 were exactly similar to those of P. domesticus but smaller, and 

 were situated in the tops of "acacia" trees growing in the 

 water. Two nests were in one tree, and the third in a tree close 



