250 F I N C H .
numbers on the neighbouring trees, when they may be Ihot by
dozens, or of night caught in great numbers by a bat fowling-
net. The flelh is accounted tolerable by many j but far lefs
efteemed than that of many other birds.
This Sparrow has no fong, only a chirp or two frequently repeated,
and far from agreeable.
I believe this fpecies to fpread everywhere throughout Europe-,
and is alfo met with in Egypt, Senegal, Syria *, and other parts of
AJrica and AJia.
1.
V ar. A.
+- WHTTE
SPARROW.
Le Molneau blanc, Bri/. orn. iii. p. 77. A.
Pafier albus, Aldrov. av. ii. pi. in p. 566.—Scop. ann. i. p. 149.
Br. Mu/. Lev. Mu/.
D escription. H I S bird has a yellow bill and irides, and the plumage
wholly white.
V arieties. White Sparrows are to be feen both in the Britijh and Leverian
Mufeums ; but the laft contains many varieties approaching to
or mixed with white.
The firft, brown above; beneath, dirty white.
Another, marked as in common, very pale, but fome of the
quills white.
A third, the upper parts very pale, almoft white : the under
parts as in common.
Fourth, everywhere of a pure white, except a rudiment of
black on the throat, fhewing it to have been a male.
* Found at Aleppo,— ‘RuJJell’e Alep. p. 70.
Fifth,
Fifth, pure white, with a fpot on the crown: the nape of the
neck, and the back, brown. One like this is alfo in the Britijh
Mujeum,
Le Moineau jaune, Bri/. one, iii. p. 78.
Paftèr fiavus, Aldr. av. ii. p. 557, pi. in ditto.
Lev. Mu/.
' J ' H I S is yellow, with a tinge of chefnut on the upper
parts.
That in the Leverian Mujeum is wholly of a yellow cream-
colour.
Br. Mu/. Lev. Mu/
T N the Leverian Mujeum is more than one lpecimen of a Black
Sparrow : the bill of a deep yellow in one of them.— I believe
that this variety is full as common as the white one; as I have
had three brought to me within thefe few years. All of them
were Ihot at large, and therefore could not be the effedt of keeping
in a cage, on improper food. I have likewife two fpecimens of
white ones, both Ihot wild in the neighbourhood.
V ar. B.
YELLOW.
D escription.
V ar. C.
+- BLACK.
D escription.
K k s Fringilla