It is now satisfactorily decided that the Sparrows inhabiting Southern Europe are to be regarded as varieties of our _Passer domesticus_, and that the differences in their plumage are simply attributable to the diversity of external circumstances. The colours of the male alter considerably as it advances in age, or under any great change of climate; the reddish brown upon the head spreading towards the nape, while, on the contrary, the same beautiful tint upon the back becomes much more indistinct as the black shade at the lower part of the feathers extends and mingles with it. Thus the Sparrows of Provence and Italy, when no longer young, resemble ours in the colour of the back; but the head is generally entirely reddish brown or grey, the feathers being tipped with light brown only after the moulting season. These birds are very numerous in the warmer parts of Siberia, Buchara, Syria, Java, Egypt, and Nubia, and are also found in the islands of the Mediterranean, especially in Sardinia. The so-called Italian Sparrow (_Passer Italicus_) has been considered by some as constituting a distinct species. In the old males the top of the head and back of the neck are dark reddish brown, the sides of the neck and cheeks white, the gorge, throat, and upper part of the breast deep brownish black, and the sides reddish grey. The female is of a rusty white, mingled with grey on the under part of the body, and the markings above the eyes are much paler than in the Sparrow of Northern Europe. This bird is principally found in the South of France and Italy, but is quite unknown in the interior of Spain and Egypt. The _Passer Italiae_ will often mate with our common House Sparrow--the plumage of the progeny being a curious mixture of that of both parents. THE SPANISH SPARROW. The SPANISH SPARROW (_Passer Hispanicus_), or MARSH SPARROW (_Passer salicicolus_), is about six inches long, and its breadth across the span of its wings about nine inches and a half. The female is somewhat smaller than her mate, and in both birds the tail is generally longer and the tarsus shorter than in the Common Sparrow. In the colour of its plumage, however, the _Passer Hispanicus_ bears but little resemblance to the House Sparrow; in the old males the head and back of the neck are of a dark reddish brown, the back is black, marked with chestnut, and the throat, breast, and sides are almost black, with a pure white streak passing above the eyes. The rest of the plumage is similar to that of the House Sparrow, and the females of both species are almost identical in appearance.