TREE SPARROW.
GOLFAN Y MYNYDD, OF THF, ANCIENT BRITISH,
M O U N T A I N BP A R R O W ,
Passer montanus,
Pyrgita Montana,
Fringilla montana,
Loxia Hamburgia,
RAY.
FLEMING.
PENNANT. MONTAGU.
GMEUN.
Passer—A Sparrow. Montanus—Appertaining to mountains.
Mens—A mountain.
THIS is an interesting bird, of just sufficient rarity to make its acquisition
generally acceptable, while not so uncommon as to fall to
the lot. of but few to obtain, or to run the risk of extermination itself,
so far a s our country at least i s concerned. It is also one of peculiarly
neat appearance, though altogether destitute of any pretensions to outside
show—'simplex munditiis'— elegantly neat, 'there are who might borrow
a lesson even from the Tree Sparrow, and it is, if they would learn
it—that they are 'when unadorned, adorned the most.'
It is indigenous in most countries of Europe, from the .Mediterranean,
through Spain, Italy, France, and Holland, to Norway and Sweden,
and extends also over a considerable portion of Asia, being common,
it is said, in Siberia and Lapland, as also in Japan and China, and
in some of the mountainous parts of India.
In Yorkshire, and no doubt in other northern counties, it breeds.
It is not uufrequent near York, and also in several parts of the West
Riding—near Doncaster, Barnsley, Wakefield, Sheffield, Halifax, and
Leeds. They are not uufrequent at N unburnholme and Kiln wick
Percy. In Worcestershire, 1 have known this species not very unite