444 PASSER PYRRHONOTUS, BYLTH. 



by it. At night in the cold weather they roost in'some small 

 dried acacia or tamarisk bush standing in the water, and which 

 is covered with a dense mass of dried stems of creepers thickly 

 interlaced together/' 



To Mr. Doig I am further indebted for a large series of 

 specimens of this species in winter plumage, in addition to the 

 two with which he formerly favoured me, in breeding plumage. 

 My remarks on page 232 had reference to the breeding 

 plumage, and will require some modification where the winter 

 plumage is concerned. In this latter the plumage much more 

 closely resembles that of the common Sparrow, so much so 

 that I am no longer surprised at the bird having been so long 

 overlooked. As for the females, except that they are every- 

 where 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 tips 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 chestnut has almost 

 wholly disappeared from the mantle and rump, a trace of 

 it lingers on the lower back, and the patch behind the 

 ear-coverts remains a pure light chestnut instead of a 

 maroon as in the common species. But whereas in the 

 breeding plumage, at any rate in the only male that I 

 have seen, there are no conspicuous white tips to the medial 

 wing-coverts as in the common Sparrow, in the non-breed- 

 ing plumage these white tippings are quite as conspicuous 

 and pure as in the latter species ; and indeed the entire 

 upper surface, with the exception of the faint red tinge 

 lingering on the lower back, is only a paler greyer reproduc- 

 tion of that of the common bird. 



Moreover the light patch on the primaries immediately 

 below the tips of the greater coverts, which, in the breeding 

 plumage, is almost white and very conspicuous, in the non- 

 breeding plumage is only a pale fawn color, much as in the 

 common species. 



From my single specimen I gather that in the breeding 

 plumage the bill of the male is quite black. 



Strange as it may seem, this species appears to be a local 

 race confined to very small area. I cannot identify it with 

 any of the other known Sparrows. In size and habits it seems 

 most to resemble Passer moabiticus of Tristram (P. Z. S v 1864, 



