3 
Ambukol. Hartmann met with it on the upper part of the Blue Nile. In North-western 
Africa, however, it is very common, and breeds in vast numbers. lLoche remarks that it very 
frequently builds in the nest of one of the larger birds of prey; and both Mr. Osbert Salvin and 
Canon Tristram testify to the vast numbers which breed in Algeria. Colonel Irby records it 
from the African side of the Straits of Gibraltar, and adds that there, as on the Spanish side, it 
is very local in its distribution. 
Dr. Anton Dohrn speaks of it as being very common on the Cape-Verd Islands, where my 
artist, Mr. Keulemans, also met with it. Dr. Carl Bolle states (J. f. O. 1857, p. 305) that, 
though hitherto it was only known from Lanzarote and Fuerteventura, he frequently observed 
it in 1856 in Canaria; and Mr. Godman says (Ibis, 1872, p. 210) that he obtained it at Palma 
in Gran Canary, where it is not uncommon, but it does not appear to go so far westward as 
Teneriffe. 
To the eastward the Spanish Sparrow appears to extend no further than Western India. 
In Persia, according to Mr. Blanford, it is apparently scarce. He obtained two specimens—one 
from Ghistigan, Baluchistan, and the other from the south-west of Karman. Dr. Jerdon says 
(B. of India, ii. p. 364) that within his limits “it has only occurred at Peshawar and Shikapore, 
but it appears to be common further west in Afghanistan. It is said to be common at Kandahar. 
Mr. A. O. Hume states (Stray Feathers, 1. p. 209) that it is only a straggler in Sindh; but invades 
nearly the whole Punjab in vast flocks during the cold season. ‘This gentleman writes (Ibis, 
1868, p. 240) as follows: —“‘The Willow-Sparrow is found throughout the Sirsa and Hansie 
districts. In the Duab, at Etawah, and near Gwalior I have shot single specimens; but about 
Sirsa it is found associated in immense flocks with the common Sparrow (Passer indicus). In 
some flocks these latter are mere stragglers; in others they form nearly one half of the party.” 
According to Dr. Severtzoff it is met with, though rarely, in Turkestan in the winter season. 
Although in general habits the present species much resembles its more widely distributed 
congener Passer domesticus, yet in choice of habitat it widely differs from that species. Whilst 
the common Sparrow frequents human habitations, villages, towns, &c., being constantly and 
almost invariably found wherever human habitations are collected together, the present species 
avoids the close proximity of man, and resorts to the groves and the outskirts of woods, nesting 
in colonies in trees, and even in bushes. When in Spain I used to find it very numerous in 
some of the well-wooded localities at some distance from human habitations; and wherever the 
larger birds of prey were numerous, there the Spanish Sparrow was also to be found. I met 
with numerous nests built in the foundations of the nests of the Buzzard, Kite, Black Kite, and 
the Booted Eagle. In the foundation of one of the last I took four nests of the present species, 
one of which was close to the edge of the nest, only a few inches distant from the head of the 
Eagle, who was sitting on her eggs. Probably the Sparrows were too insignificant to be noticed 
or molested by the Eagles and Buzzards; and the position of the Sparrows’ nests protected 
them from the depredations of the smaller birds of prey. In one place I found a large 
colony of these Sparrows breeding in several large trees, the nests being suspended amongst 
the smaller branches in such a manner that it was utterly impossible to take one without 
destroying the eggs. The nests were made like those of the common Sparrow when this 
latter nests in trees, but appeared to me to be rather more carefully and firmly constructed. 
DID 
