94 PRINGILLID^. 



The SpaiTow, as before observed, is seldom seen far from 

 the habitations of men ; but as summer advances, and the 

 nestlings are able to go abroad, both old and young resort in 

 flocks to the nearest corn-fields, and feast on the milky grain ; 

 but when the crop is carried, their supply being cut off, they 

 return to the vicinity of houses, to seek again the adventitious 

 meal there afforded them. 



The House- Sparrow is common over nearly all of the 

 British Islands, the chief exception being those of the Outer 

 Hebrides, save Lewis — where, though now abundant, it 

 eeems not to have shewn itself till about 1830, and was not 

 seen there even in 1842by James Wilson — andBarra — where 

 alone it was observed in 1830 by Macgillivray ; but there are 

 many isolated spots in Scotland * where it is very rare, as 

 some parts of the Highlands, according to the same 

 naturalist, or is altogether absent, as the hill-farms in 

 Ayrshire, according to Mr. Gray. Probably the same might 

 be said of Ireland, if more were known of the ornithology 

 of that country, since Lord Clermont, in a note kindly 

 furnished to the Editor, states that, though common in the 

 immediate neighbourhood, one pair only (which appeared for 

 a few days in the spring of 1870) had been seen in the course 

 of many years about the house, stables and gardens of Ravens- 

 dale Park near Newry. In Norway it now occurs in most of 

 the settlements, though missing some of them entirely, along 

 the coast to the Loffodens and Alten, and is in such places 

 generally resident ; but further to the northward it only 

 occasionally shews itself, and has not yet made good its foot- 

 ing either in Vardo or Vadso. In Sweden it follows the settlers 

 into the forest-wilds, and the most northern point at present 

 recorded for it is Karesuando — but this is beyond its ordinary 

 range, though by 1854 Wolley found that it had established 

 itself at Muonioniska, not much to the southward. Passing 

 eastward it seems to be very generally distributed through- 

 out Finland excepting perhaps its northern parts, and Dr. 



* Mr. Rowe states that he is informed that at Shepstor, a moorland village in 

 Devon, the Sparrow is never seen. This is the sole exception to its universal dis- 

 tribution in England known to the Editor. 



