204 
Rev. F. C. R. Jourdain on the 
it. On climbing the tree I found a single big young Kite in 
grey down, but could find no Sparrows’ nests among the 
foundations of the Kite’s nest. It was interesting to note 
that the Sparrows only vacated the nest on the return of the 
Kite, and evidently subsisted on the pickings of the Kite's 
larder. The mystery of the nest was, however, solved by 
accident, for on May 29 we happened to be in the same 
district again. Several pairs of Bee-eaters, Merops apiaster, 
were breeding in the hard soil, not in steep banks, but in 
burrows made in almost flat ground. While digging out 
one of these I was astonished to come across feathers, bits 
of straw, and all the untidy mess usually associated with a 
Sparrow’s nest, and presently I was able to extract the nest 
and six typical maroon-coloured Rock-Sparrow’s eggs ! Five 
minutes’ watching enabled us to identify the anxious parent 
as she flew from bush to bush, obviously uneasy. Another 
bird was carrying building material in its bill, and probably 
several pairs were breeding close at hand *. Subsequently I 
obtained another nest at the end of May, which was placed 
in a hole in a cork-oak, and contained the remarkably large 
number of 8 eggs. These 14 eggs average in size 2F5x 
15 2 mm. ; max. 22*7 X 14 9 and 21x16, min. 20*3x15*8 
and 22 2 X 14 5. 
The Sardinian Rock-Sparrow is not a well-defined local 
race, but is distinctly darker than specimens from the 
European continent. 
24 . Passer italic (Vieill.). Italian Sparrow. 
Local names: Passer a; Cardaino (Giglioli). A very 
common resident in the inhabited parts of the island, 
especially on the low ground. It is, however, absent from 
some of the hill-villages. Parrot has pointed out that, 
as a rule, Corsican birds are rather shorter-winged than 
Italian specimens (Ornith. Jahrbuch, xxi. p. 141). Like 
* The reference in the Orn. Jahrb. xxi. p. 139 to nests discovered 
in the eyrie of the Red Kite is due to a misunderstanding of some 
remarks made by me at the Berlin Ornithological Congress on the 
parasitic habits of this colony. [F. C. R. J.] 
