SPARROW-HAWK 897 



truth will not be known until a series of experiments, conducted 

 by scientifically-trained investigators, has been instituted, which, to 

 the shame of our numerous agricultural and horticultural societies, 

 has not yet been done. It is quite likely that the result will be 

 unfavourable to the House-Sparrow, fi'om what has been said above 

 as to its being so dependent on man for its subsistence ; but, while 

 the evil it does is so apparent, — for instance, the damage to ripen- 

 ing grain-crops, — the extent of the counterbalancing benefit is 

 quite uncertain, and from the nature of the case is often over- 

 looked. In the South of Europe the House -Sparrow is in some 

 measure replaced by two allied species, P. hispaniolensis and P. 

 ifalise, whose habits are essentially identical with its own ; and it is 

 doubtful whether the Sparrow of India, P. indicus, is specifically 

 distinct ; but Africa has several members of the genus Avhich are 

 decidedly so. 



3. The Tree-Sparrow, the Fringilla montana of Linnaeus, and 

 Passer montanus of modern writers, in appearance much resembling 

 the House-Sparrow, but easily distinguishable by its reddish-brown 

 crown, the black patch on the sides of its neck and its doubly- 

 barred wings,^ is a much more local species, in England generally 

 frequenting the rows of pollard-willows that line so many rivers 

 and canals, in the holes of which it breeds ; but in some Eastern 

 countries, and especially in China, it frequents houses, even in 

 towns, and so fills the place of the House -Sparrow. Its geo- 

 graphical distribution is extensive, and marked by some curious 

 characters, among which may be mentioned that, being a great 

 wanderer, it has effected settlements even in such remote islands as 

 the Fseroes and some of the Outer Hebrides. 



That the genus Passer properly belongs to the Fringillidse is 

 admitted by most ornithologists, yet there have been some who 

 would refer it to the Ploceidx (Weaver-bird), if they are to be 

 accounted as forming a distinct Family. The American birds called 

 " Sparrows " have little in common with the members of the genus 

 Passer, and probably belong rather to the Family Emberizidse than 

 to the Fringillidse (cf. Towhee). 



SPAEEOW-HAWK, Sw. SparrhoJc, Dutch Sperwer, Germ. 

 Sperber, 0. H. G. Sparvari, 0. Fr. Esprevier, Mod. Fr. J^pervier (all 



the Report of Observations of Injurious Insects and Common Crop Pests, annually 

 made by Miss Ormerod, and in a little volume, with the title of The Rouse- 

 Sparrow, published in 1885, which consists chiefly of three essays by Mr. J. H. 

 Gurney, jun., the late Lieut. -Col. C. Russell, and Prof. Coues, but the last has 

 only reference to the behaviour of the biixl in the United States of America, 

 where, from the reason above assigned, its presence was expected by almost all 

 well-informed persons to be detrimental. 



^ A more important diff'erence is that the two sexes have almost the same 

 plumage, while in the House-SpaiTow they are unlike in this respect. 



57 



