SPANISH SPARROW. 



133 



and especially among the reeds in the salt marshes. At 

 Waregla and Tuggurt, where the salt lakes are never dry, 

 the noise of these birds is perfectly deafening, and a 

 hundred may be, and I am told have been, brought 

 clown at a shot. Its habits are certainly very different 

 from those of its familiar congener here, though in 

 boldness and activity it rivals him. I am not acquainted 

 with this bird in Spain; but in Africa, as a general 

 rule, it does not affect the habitations of men, and 

 always breeds near water, in vast colonies of many 

 thousands." — (Page 293.) 



Mr. Salvin says in his "Five Months Bird-nesting in 

 the Eastern Atlas, ("Ibis," vol. i, p. 314:)— "The Span- 

 ish Sparrow is found in great numbers during the 

 breedins: season, among the tamarisk thickets on the 

 Chemora, and in the high sedge at Zana. The Arabs 

 destroy the nests, eggs, and young wherever they find 

 them, as their great numbers do much damage to the 

 crops of corn. The nests are placed as thickly as 

 they can stand, the whole colon}^ consisting of perhaps 

 one hundred pairs, occupying only five or six trees. 

 The noise and ceaseless chattering proceeding from 

 one of these 'Sparrow towns' can easily be imagined; 

 and, guided by the sound alone, one may walk di- 

 rectly to the spot for a considerable distance. One 

 Sunday morning four Arabs came to our tents, and 

 gravely sitting down in a row, opened the hoods of 

 their burnouses, and displayed eight hundred or a 

 thousand Sparrow eggs, which they arranged in four 

 heaps before them, and remained in their sitting pos- 

 ture, contemplating them with evident satisfaction. We 

 were rather taken by surprise, but selected the best 

 for our collections, reserving the rest for omelettes." 

 I have received a male and female of the bird 



