3 
p. 25), “for about a week at the end of December there were several of these birds in the 
immediate neighbourhood of Ajaccio; but I never saw them afterwards. On the 28th I shot 
two out of one of my windows; and all the time they stayed with us they were exceptionally 
tame.” It occurs also rarely in Malta. Lord Lilford mentions (Ibis, 1860, p. 137) that he observed 
several Rock-Sparrows in the Acroceraunian Mountains in May 1857, and in Montenegro in 
August of the same year; and Dr. Kriiper says that in some parts of Greece, as, for instance, in 
Attica and the Parnassus, it is common, but rare in Acarnania. Inside the walls of Salonica, in 
Macedonia, he found it common. In Attica it breeds twice in the year, late in April and in 
June; but in the mountains it only nests once, late in May, at which time Dr. Kriiper found a 
clutch of seven fresh eggs in the Parnassus. In July and August he saw flocks of hundreds of 
individuals in the elevated plains of the Parnassus. It is said to be not uncommon near Con- 
stantinople; and Von Nordmann says that it occurs in the mountain districts south of the Black 
Sea. Ménétriés found it in the rocks skirting the Caspian, between Bakou and Kouby; and 
Dr. Kriiper says that he saw large flocks near Smyrna in the winter, but scarcely ever met with 
it during the summer season; and Mr. Danford met with it in Adalia. Canon Tristram says that 
it is never found in Palestine in winter, but reappears in the early spring, late in March, and 
immediately begins to select its nest-holes; it is very widely distributed, but only in the open 
rocky country. He never observed it either on the coast-plains or in the Jordan valley, while 
along the central ridge of Western Palestine it was very common. I do not find it recorded 
from North-eastern Africa; but it occurs in Algeria. Mr. Taczanowski met with it at the Tell 
amongst rocks and near houses, but nowhere numerous. Neither Mr. C. F. Tyrwhitt-Drake nor 
Favier mention having seen it in Morocco. According to Dr. Carl Bolle it is said to occur on 
all the Canary islands, but is, he thinks, most common on Madeira, where it takes the place of 
the House-Sparrow; but Mr. Godman (Ibis, 1872, p. 210) speaks of it as being exceedingly 
abundant near the coast and about cultivated lands and gardens. It even frequents the towns, 
but breeds in societies in holes in cliffs. He considers that it is more common in the Canaries 
than in Madeira. 
To the eastward the present species is found as far as North China, but it appears to be 
very local in its distribution. Dr. Severtzoff says that it breeds in Turkestan; and it was found 
in Persia by Mr. Blanford and Major St. John. Mr. Blanford states (EK. Pers. ii. p. 255) that 
he did not meet with the present species east of Shiraz, but in the mountains between Shiraz 
and Isfahan it was common, and also in the Elburz, north of Tehran, keeping much to barren 
and rocky parts of the hills at a considerable elevation, and being usually seen in small flocks. 
It has not been recorded from India; but Dr. Radde, who met with it in Eastern Siberia, writes 
as follows :—“I was not a little astonished to find near the frontier post of Kulussutajefsk, on 
the 28th August, in the bare steppe, a flock of fifteen to twenty individuals of this species, out of 
which I shot a pair.” It is not mentioned by any other of the Siberian travellers; but Pére 
David says that it is found and breeds in the Ordo Mountains, north-west of Pekin. Colonel 
Prjevalsky, who met with it in Mongolia, writes as follows:—‘‘The specimens we obtained 
differed from European examples by their conspicuously paler coloration and shorter bill; but 
the latter is subject to great variation, and specimens from the Caspian in the St.-Petersburg 
Museum are intermediate between the East-Asiatic and Kuropean forms. In Mongolia this 
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