VOL. VII.] TREE-SPARROW IN IRELAND. 4B 



and it was through him that I first learned to distinguish 

 this bird in the field from the House-Sparrow. The 

 further distribution appears to have been first traced 

 chiefly in the southern direction, for we find that in 

 March, 1865, a male was obtained at Sandymount 

 (British Asso^'Aation Guide to Co. Dublin, 1878), while 

 Dalkey is also given as a locality ;* both places being 

 on the south side of Dublin Bay. In December, 1890, 

 an example was secured near Bray on the borders of 

 CO. Dublin and co. Wicklow ; six years later an exhausted 

 specimen was found on the Tuskar Rock, co. Wexford. t 

 In the meantime, viz. in 1886, a pair were seen fre- 

 quenting the roof of a cabin on Aranmore Island, co. 

 Donegal. J In regard to this observation Mr. Ussher 

 makes the following comment : " The species cannot 

 have established itself there, for in 1896, when I visited 

 Aranmore with the Rev. A. ElHson, we passed an hour 

 inspecting the Sparrows about the cabins on the island, 

 without meeting with a Tree-Sparrow. "§ I may suggest 

 that to me personally an hour seems a very short time to 

 allot for the inspection of sparrows on an island of such 

 size as Aranmore ; it took me the greater part of a day 

 to inspect the sparrows of Inishtrahull, a very much 

 smaller island, and with far less cover for the birds. 

 Now that I have found the Tree-Sparrow so dominant 

 a feature on Inishtrahull, the question of its occurrence 

 on the adjacent Island of Aranmore becomes a matter 

 of renewed interest. In 1897, Mr. Ussher pubhshed 

 an important paper on the " Distribution of Birds 

 Breeding in Ireland," at which date he considers that 

 " The Tree-SparroAv, first announced in 1852, is appar- 

 ently still confined to the vicinity of the Go. Dublin 



* H. Blake-Knox, Zoologist, 1870, p. 2018. 



t Barrington, Migration of Birds, Analysis of Reports, 1881-97,. 

 p. 126. 



+ H. M. Wallis, Zoologist, 1886, p. 489. 



§ Ussher, Birds of Ireland, 1900, p. 61. 



