84 FRINGILLID.E. 



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, some- 

 times sparingly but 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 be 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) Malhcrbe has found nests of 

 this species in Sicily beneath an eyry that contained two Eaglets. 



