54 FINCH. 



Passera marina, Zinnan. Uov. 80. t. 11. f. 71. 



RingelSpatz, Gunth. Nest. u. Ey. t. 89. Naturf. xvii. 97. No. 199. 



Ring Sparrow, Gen. Syn. iii. 254. Id. Sup. 164. Will. Engl. 250. 



LARGER than a House Sparrow ; length five inches and three 

 quarters. Bill strong, upper mandible brown, lower pale grey, with 

 a brown tip; head, and upper parts of the neck and back dirty grey, 

 spotted with brown ; rump the same, but not spotted ; all beneath 

 dirty grey and white mixed ; fore part of the neck yellow ; round the 

 head, above the eyes, a dirty white ring ;* wings as the back, some of 

 the coverts, and the second quills, white at the ends ; quills and tail 

 dusky, the feathers edged with grey, all but the two middle ones 

 have a white spot on the inner web/j" near the tip. 



Inhabits various parts of Europe, but chiefly Germanj^; in some 

 parts of which it is pretty numerous ; likewise Spain and Italy : is 

 migratory, and in greater numbers according to the warmth of the 

 climate, collecting into flocks at the end of July, and remaining so 

 till the spring. It frequents woods, and builds in the holes of trees, 

 laying four or five whitish eggs, marked all over with dusky bluish % 

 spots, and has only one brood in a year : lives both on seeds and 

 insects. It probably is found in Africa, at least in Barbary; as 

 flights pass in the spring and autumn over Gibraltar; the autumnal 

 flights by much the more numerous, and many are taken by bird- 

 catchers ; is often kept in cages, and soon grows familiar, but has 

 a very trifling note. 



7.— FOOLISH FINCH. 



Fringilla stulta, Ltd. Orn. i. 436. Gm. Lin. i. 919. Shaiv's Zool. ix. 436. 



Passer stultus, Raii, 87. 1. Will. 182. Bris. iii. S7. Id. 8vo. i. 330. Rom. Orn. 108. 



* In the PI. enl. the whole, above the eyes, is rusty cream colour, surrounded with a 

 ring of black, and beneath that another of white. 



f Linnaeus says, that the spot is on the outer web, but this is evidently a mistake. 

 X Gunther. 



