, 



PASSER AMMODENDRI, Severtzow. 



Turkestan Sparrow. 



Passer ammodendri, Dode, in Proc. of Zool, Soc, 1871, pp. 480, 481 



The members of the genus Passer (of which our own P. domesticus may be considered a typical example, if 

 not the veritable type of the form) are widely spread over various portions of the Old World. They amount 

 to about fifteen in number, four of which inhabit Europe ; as many or even more are indigenous in Africa ; 

 others occur in Asia Minor, Palestine, India, China, and Japan, to which modem research has recently added 

 another very distinct and highly interesting species from Turkestan. The whole of them bear a very general 

 resemblance in size ; none are highly coloured or gaudy in their attire, but, generally speaking, the males 

 are distinguished by conspicuous markings on the head and throat, which are absent in the females ; some 

 are peculiarly domestic in their habits, frequenting villages, towns, and great cities, while others resort to the 

 open country, often in troops of hundreds, and roost on rocks, in woods, and great beds of reeds. On the 

 whole they may be said to be a highly gregarious family of birds. Many persons believe that this form is 

 found in America ; but this is not the case, with the exception of P. domesticus, and that has been intro- 

 duced ; neither are any species found in Australia, New Zealand, or Polynesia. 



In form and size the Sparrow of Turkestan assimilates closely to P. domesticus ; but a glance at the 

 accompanying Plate will convince the reader that it is very differently coloured, and of its specific value there 

 can be no doubt. So little is known respecting it that the following brief note from the pen of M. Charles 

 Dode, of St. Petersburg, published in the ' Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London ' for 1871, above 

 referred to, comprises all that, so far as I am aware, has been recorded : — 



" Cette jolie espece de passereau a ete trouvee par M. Severtzow naturaliste Russe dans les montagnes 

 Celestes sur des plateaux d'un acces difficile ; les seules donnees qui m'aient ete communiquecs, c'est que 

 pendant l'hiver qu'on se trouve, cet oiseau ne descend pas dans la plaine." 



Like most, if not all, the other members of its genus, it is not migratory, and probably never leaves the 

 high plateaux of its native country ; otherwise collectors would surely have met with it in China, India, or 

 the eastern portion of Europe. 



The male has the crown of the head and back of the neck black, each feather margined with grey; line 

 from the bill above the eye white ; sides of the head cinnamon-brown ; lores, a curved line behind the eye, 

 and the chin and throat deep black ; mantle greyish brown, striated with black ; lesser wing-coverts black, 

 largely tipped with white ; greater coverts and secondaries black, margined with greyish white ; spurious 

 wing and primaries brown, becoming much darker towards their tips, and narrowly margined with grey; 

 lower half of the back grey ; tail blackish brown, narrowly edged with grey ; under surface greyish white, 

 with a faint wash of brown on the ear-coverts and flanks ; bill black ; feet flesh-colour. 



The female has the head and upper surface grey, streaked with black ; across the forehead and over each 

 eye a greyish-white line ; ear-coverts brown ; under surface huffy white, with a small obscure patch of blackish 

 brown on the throat. 



The Plate represents the two sexes, of the size of life. 



