104 THE BIRDS OF SHERWOOD FOREST. 
it as the tree sparrow, the dull chestnut of the head and 
nape forming a clear distinction from its relative, the 
house sparrow. Further observation showed me that it 
was more abundant than I had supposed ; indeed, so 
much so that I cannot call it very rare. 
With us it exclusively inhabits the cultivated dis- 
tricts, the meadows and hop grounds being much re- 
sorted to. As faras I have noticed, its nest has gene- 
rally been placed in the hollows of pollard willows, of 
which numbers grow along the banks of the stream ; 
the old oaks in the forest offer innumerable cavities 
in their decayed arms and trunks, but I never saw the 
tree sparrow avail itself of them; nor indeed have I 
ever met with it in woods. 
Its habits are more shy than those of thé house spar- 
row, and though easily recognised as a sparrow, yet its 
general form has a more graceful outline, and it is rather 
less in size. With the robust form it also lacks the pert 
impudence of its congener; and even in winter | 
never saw it mingle with the flocks of the latter which 
throng our farm and stack yards at that season. Its 
ordinary call is similar to that of the house sparrow, but 
shriller in tone; and it sometimes utters a few consecu- 
tive notes which are meant for a song, but have not much 
music in them. The eggs have a dull whitish ground, 
rather finely speckled all over with greyish brown. They 
do not vary much either in size or markings, though now 
and then I have found an egg in which the usually close 
speckles were replaced by larger markings and spots, 
sparingly distributed. 
No bird is so well known or so universally distributed 
throughout the British Isles as the House Sparrow 
(Passer domesticus). Town and country, smiling fields 
