44 BOCK 8PABB0W. 



The genus Passer is well marked, and has been established ever 

 since ornitbology was a science. Notices of it may be found in the 

 ■writings of Gesner, Willoughby, Aldrovandus, and Ray, and it was 

 finally determined by Brisson, in liis " Ornitliologie," published in 

 1760. Cuvier suggested the name of Pijrgijta instead, and in some 

 few works he has been followed, very much against the true interests 

 of science. Bonaparte, following Schlegel and others, adopts Brisson's 

 ^enus with some restrictions, and with his usual fondness for con- 

 verting specific into generic names, he has followed Kaup by placing 

 the subject of the present notice in a separate genus under the name 

 of Petronia rupestris. 



The Rock Sparrow is an inhabitant of the warm and temperate 

 regions of Europe, namely, Spain, the south of France, Sardinia, and 

 the whole of Italy, In the south of France it is very common in 

 Anjou, the Pyrenees, and the Basses Alps. It is found occasionally 

 in Lorraine, and several individuals are stated by Degland to have 

 been captured in the neighbourhood of Paris, and one female at Lille, 

 in October, 1839. It is rare in the north of France and Switzerland, 

 and is only occasionally found solitary in the west and south of Ger- 

 many, viz., the Rhinegau, Wetherau, and several other places on the 

 Rhine. Naumann says it has been shot in Thuringia, but not, to his 

 knowledge, in Anhalt. It is included in Savi's "Birds of Tuscany," 

 but it does not apj)ear to be a common bird there. Count Miihle 

 says that it is solitary in the whole of Greece on the bare stone walls, 

 and very plentiful throughout the Grecian Islands. Lord Lilford, in 

 his description of birds observed by him in the Ionian Islands, ("Ibis," 

 vol. ii., p. loT,) says that he observed several of these birds in the 

 Acrocerannian Mountains, in May, 1857, and in Montenegro in August 

 of the same year. It was found by Captain Loche in the three pro- 

 vinces of Algeria; and is included by Mr. Tristram in his list of the 

 birds of Southern Palestine, where it is observed everywhere on the 

 bare stony hills. Dr. Leith Adams informs me that it is very common 

 in Sicily, occasionally visits Malta in the spring, and is abundant in 

 Affghanistan. 



Salvadori (Fauna d'ltalia) writes, "This species is found throughout 

 Italy. I have seen many individuals in April, in Sardinia, near Seni. 

 According to Cara it nests there. It is also stationary and nests in 

 Sicily. According to Bettoni it does not nest in Lombardy, which 

 statement is doubtful, while it certainly nests in Piedmont. A young 

 bird just from the nest killed in Piedmont is preserved in the Museum 

 of Turin. It appears in Malta accidentally (Wright). It inhabits 



