son, who says that he has known it in Northumberland to
breed under the coping of old walls in the society of the
kindred species. The like choice has been noticed in the
same district by Mr. Hancock, and by Vieillot in France;
while, as will presently appear, throughout the greater part
of its range it has become almost exclusively an house-
haunting bird. It will also build in the deserted nests of
Crows and Pies,* in which it constructs a domed abode, and
it has bred in the hole of a tree that had been occupied by
a Green Woodpecker. Still, while the House-Sparrow has
to a great extent abandoned its natural habit, the Tree-
Sparrow, from its comparative shyness in this country, has
with us generally preserved its ancient mode of building,
and usually frequents old trees remote from houses, such as
those at Wainfleet in Lincolnshire, where Montagu was
enabled to determine several important facts respecting it.
It is perhaps most plentiful along the rows of pollard-willows
that fringe so many of our sluggish rivers and canals, where
it easily excavates in the soft, rotten wood a receptacle for
its nest, consisting, in such cases, of but a small quantity
of dry grass with a lining of feathers. The eggs, from four
to six in number, measuring from '8 to *69 by from ’56 to
*52 in., are of a french white, blotched or speckled, sometimes
sparingly hut generally freckled all over, with a deep
hair-brown : when the markings are collected in large masses
other splotches of ash-colour may be seen on the very
apparent white ground, and in most nests of the species
there is one egg of this character, whatever he the pattern
of the rest. The young are fed with insects and soft
vegetables, which also form the principal sustenance of the
parents during spring and summer. At other times they
feed on seeds, and in winter both young and old will
occasionally flock with other Finches and Buntings to rick-
yards or any places likely to supply food. This seasonal
change of locality shews that the Tree-Sparrows which abide
* As already stated in this work (vol. i. p. 22) Malherbe has found nests of
this species in Sicily beneath an eyry that contained two Eaglets.
with us are yet partial migrants, and it is unquestionable
that a large number visit England, especially its eastern
side, every autumn. Mr. Cordeaux says that in Lincolnshire
he has sometimes seen five or six hundred together. The
birds have also been observed on their passage hither as
recorded by Blyth (Field-Nat. i. p. 467) and Mr. Rodd
(Zool. p. 7812). In the former case, which happened in
October, 1833, flocks to the number of an hundred settled on
a ship hound for the Thames as she passed the coast of
Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex. In the latter, thousands, it is
said, boarded a vessel between the Dogger Bank and the
Galloper light-ship in November, 1860. The Editor may
add that he has rarely crossed the North Sea without seeing
some birds of this species which have often appeared far
from land.
The common call-note of the Tree-Sparrow is a chiip, not
unlike though shriller than that of the House-Sparrow, hut,
as Blyth remarks (Mag. Nat. Hist. vii. p. 488), it has others
in great variety. The cock has also a proper song, which
the same observant naturalist describes as “ consisting of a
number of these chirps, intermixed with some pleasing notes,
delivered in a continuous unbroken strain, sometimes for
many minutes together; very loudly, and having a characteristic
sparrow tone throughout.”
The Tree-Sparrow is a local and comparatively rare species
almost everywhere in England—even in those parts wherein
it is most abundant—while in others it occurs but as a
straggler. The English counties in which it seems not yet
to have been recorded as breeding are Cornwall, Devon,
Wilts, Hants, Surrey, Herts, Middlesex, Bedford, Monmouth,
Worcester, Westmoreland and Cumberland, hut it
has probably been overlooked in all these except the two
first, the two last and Monmouthshire. It has not been
known to breed in Wales, and in Scotland its settlements
are still more sporadic—the counties of Berwick, Haddington,
possibly Clackmannan, Perth, Aberdeen, Elgin and,
since 1872 (Proc. Nat. Hist. Soc. Glasgow, 1875, p. 101),
Sutherland being those alone in which as yet its nests have