TREE-SPARROW. 57 



on many Scottish islands, including Fair Island ; on others it 

 now breeds. 



The bird is often confused with the larger and coarser House- 

 Sparrow, but its rich brown, almost coppery head, a black 

 patch on its white cheeks, and a double white wing bar, together 

 with its slighter and more graceful build, are distinctive. The 

 sexes are practically alike, an important specific character. 

 Shy and rural 1n its choice of habitat, it is smarter in its move- 

 ments, both on the wing and in trees, than the commoner bird. 

 Its voice is shriller; the call is a shorter "chip," as if the "r" 

 is omitted from the House-Sparrow's note, and is frequently 

 repeated—" chib, tchip," with emphasis on the second syllable. 

 It has the double " phil-lip," and a shrill " churr," and the 

 song, modulated chirps, is not unmusical. Its chirrups, when 

 gathering at the roost, for it is a sociable species, are higher 

 pitched and more distinct than those of its congener, and 

 the note of the young, though insistent, is more subdued. 

 In winter it visits the stackyards, flocking with other sparrows 

 and finches, or frequents, day by day, a roadside heap of 

 manure or rubbish. 



Though occasionally nesting in isolated trees (Plate 21), it is 

 a gregarious bird at all seasons, and a grove of old trees with a 

 plentiful supply of hollows, or a disused quarry, are favourite 

 sites for the colony ; what it likes is a hole in which to put its 

 untidy nest, composed of hay, grass, wool or other material and 

 lined with feathers. Some of the nests are not actually in 

 holes in rock, but are built amongst roots of overhanging furze 

 or other bushes. The haunts of man are not always shunned, 

 for old thatch in a barn or cottage will shelter a colony. A 

 domed nest, like that of the House-Sparrow, is sometimes built 

 in the old home of a Magpie or other bird. The four to six 

 eggs, usually five, are smaller and, as a rule, browner than those 

 of the House-Sparrow (Plate 34) ; they vary considerably, and 

 frequently the markings are massed at one end. In most 



