185 



Mr. Zarudny described its nest as somewhat lightly constructed of bents, lined with feathers 

 and camel's hair, spherical or cylindrical in shape, with the entrance in the side or on the top 

 according to the position. It is placed in the hole of a saxaul on the skirts of the woods not far 

 from the ground, or in the fissures in the steep slopes of the sandhills, and he once found one 

 close beside a Kite's nest. 



The eggs, he says, resemble those of Passer domesticus, and are usually five or six, some- 

 times even seven, in number, and two broods are raised in the year. 



Mr. Pleske separates Passer stoliczkw specifically from Passer ammodendri, and says (Bull. 

 Ac. Imp. Sci. de St. Petersbourg, tome xiii. p. 282) that P. stolizckce is duller and P. ammodendri 

 greyer in tone of colour, and that P. ammodendri is distinctly striped on the rump, whereas in 

 P. stoliczkos these striations are absent. 



In the series I have examined all the specimens but two from Turkestan have the striations 

 absent like those sent to me by Mr. Pleske as Passer stoliczkw, and in the specimen from 

 Tedgend, Transcaspia, which is in full spring plumage, the rump is not striated. The two 

 specimens above referred to are males, specimens c and e in the British Museum, and were 

 obtained in Turkestan by Dr. Severtzoff's collectors in April, the same month as the male from 

 Tedgend above described. They have the black on the head and throat very pure, the stripes on 

 the upper parts are very clearly defined, and the rump and upper tail-coverts are very distinctly 

 striped. It appears to me that Passer stoliczkce cannot be recognized as a valid species. I have 

 not been able to examine a specimen of Passer timidus, which, so far as I can judge from the 

 description, cannot be separated from the present species ; and Dr. Sharpe also says (Cat. B. Brit. 

 Mus. xii. p. 339) that he has examined a pair of specimens which appeared to him "to be 

 scarcely separable from Passer ammodendri." 



Although Dr. Severtzoff did not actually publish his 'Fauna of Turkestan' until 1873, yet 

 it was written and, I believe, printed in 1870, and specimens of the new species were distributed 

 by him in that year labelled with the names he bad given. Hence the present species was 

 exhibited at a meeting of the Zoological Society by Mr. Dode in May 1871; and Mr. Gould 

 published a figure and description of it in 1872, giving Severtzoff's name, to whom, though his 

 description was not published until 1873, the credit of naming it is really due. 



The specimens figured are the adult male and female above described, and are in my 

 own collection. The shrub on which they are placed is the saxaul, from which the specific 

 name of this Sparrow is derived. 



In the preparation of the above article I have examined the following specimens : — 



E Mus. H. E. Dresser. 



a, g . Tedgend, Transcaspia, April 1st (Dr. G. Radde). b, $ , c, ? . October 23rd; d, <$ . October 27th; 

 e, $ . October 30th, Iany-Darja River (Severtzoff). f, g, h, $ , i, ? . Nija-Darja, E. Turkestan, February 

 1890 (Pevtzoff). 



E Mus. Brit. 



a, <J. Bokhara; b. Turkestan, November 27th, 1866; c, $, d, ? . Hi River, Ferghana, April 18th; e, £ . 

 Ferghana, April 29th (Severtzoff). f, g, h, $ , i, ? . Kashgar, January and February (Stoliezka). 

 k,l,m, J. Kashgar, December 1873 (Col. Biddulph) . n, $. Maralbashi, January 1874 (Stoliezka). 

 o, 6. Khoten (Dr. Lansdell). 



