BOCK SPABBOW. 47 



It differs from other Sparrows in preferring oily to farinaceous seeds. 



The Rock Sparrow nests in the E-hine country, in the neighbourhood 

 of Weisbaden especially. They build in high fruit trees, or in the 

 holes of ruins of old castles and watch-towers. They pick out a 

 narrow and deep fissure in the walls, generally pretty high up; they 

 never build in woods. They will return year after year to the same 

 hole, and, like other Sparrows, young and old sleep in them together. 

 The nest is like that of the House Sparrow; there is a great heap 

 of straw and stalks of grass, with fine rootlets and other fibres of 

 plants, old rags, and thread, and it is lined with hair, worsted, wool, 

 and feathers in abundance. It is always placed so deeply in the 

 hole that the materials cannot be seen outside. 



It appears from the authority of Brehm that they only lay two or 

 three eggs. Naumann, however, thinks this is a local peculiarity and 

 not general. The eggs are very similar to those of the House Sparrow, 

 but larger, and equally as various. The ground colour is a cloudy 

 white, with ash-grey and brown dots marked over with streaks and 

 spots, through which much of the ground colour appears. Those 

 slightly marked have often greater spots, others mostly small streaks 

 running over them, and the markings are generally most numerous 

 at the larger end. The grey marking varies into brighter and darker, 

 and the brown changes from yellowish to reddish grey brown, and 

 even almost into blackish brown or slate-colour. 



They appear only to breed once in the year. The old birds are 

 very anxious about their young, and are in great distress when any- 

 one approaches the nest which contains them, and are very careful 

 watchers. 



The male in breeding plumage has the head light brown, with two 

 darker bands on each side; all the upper parts more or less of the 

 same tint, marked with longitudinal patches of darker brown, the 

 borders of the feathers being lighter; rump and under tail coverts 

 light brown, the feathers tipped with white; throat, crop, and abdomen 

 tawny white, with grey and brown spots; a yellow band separates the 

 throat from the crop; sides of the head and neck ash-colour, with a 

 brown band beneath the eye, and a white broad line separating the 

 eyebrow from a similar band on the head. Wings the same colour 

 as the back, with the coverts tipped with russet grey; the primaries 

 brown, with a white patch on the middle of each outer web, except 

 the first, and more marked on the second and third; tail feathers 

 brown, and terminated, except the two middle ones, with a round 

 white spot on the inner web. Beak brown above, yellowish below; 

 feet russet; iris brown. 



