12 



collect in flocks and frequent the hedges and stack-yards, and are often 

 seen in very large flocks in tlie corn-fields." 



The distribution of this species is perhaps greater than any other 

 known bird ; it occupies every city, town, village, castle, manor, solitary 

 church, private residence, hamlet, the smallest isolated cottage, to the 

 woodman's hut in the depth of the most lonely forests throughout the 

 whole of Europe, and from Siberia in the North to Egypt, Nubia and 

 Bengal; as Mr. H. E. Dresser truly remarks, " it follows the footsteps of 

 man almost like a domestic animal, and where he fixes his habitation there 

 the sparrow also takes up its abode." 



In England it is found in every county, from the borders of Scotland 

 to the Scilly Islands, to the West throughout Ireland, to the North in 

 Scotland and its adjacent islands, passing still farther North to the Orkney 

 and Shetland Islands, I procured it in Unst the most northern of the 

 latter group. It does not appear to be found in Iceland or the Faroe 

 Islands, but is plentiful in the warmer valleys of Scandinavia. 



Its range according to travellers and collectors, extends from Southern 

 Europe to Madeira, the Canary Islands ; Morocco, Algeria, and Tangiers 

 in N.-W. Africa ; throughout Turkey in Europe, Asia Minor, Palestine 

 into Egypt, and Nubia, the shores of the Red Sea to the borders of the 

 Blue Nile as far as Khartoum. To the east the vast territories in which 

 it has been observed, gives further proof of its extension, wherever the 

 cultivation of corn is practicable, there they are found by thousands. It 

 is abundant in Persia according to Mr. Blanford ; from thence it 

 advances to Turkestan, Baluchistan, Afghanistan, and extremely common 

 in the valleys of the Himalayas and India, from Calcutta, Bengal, 

 Madras, Nepal, Cashmere, Burmah and Siam, to Ceylon and the adjacent 

 islands. At present I am unable to find any account of its appearance in 

 China, or Japan. 



The introduction of it into Australia, New Zealand, and the United 

 States is of comparatively modern date, but those found in Mauritius and 

 Keunion must have been taken there at a very early period. 



Nidification. — It matters little to a sparrow, as to choice of a nesting 



