TREE SPARROW. 471 



Continent, where this species is rather numerous, that they 

 often build in holes in the tiling of houses, and in stacks of 

 wood-faggots, and M. Vieillot, when noticing these birds in 

 France, says, that they occasionally build their nests in old 

 walls, not many feet above the ground ; and they are also 

 observed to frequent gardens like the common House Spar- 

 row. Their nests are formed of hay, and lined with feathers ; 

 the eggs, from four to six in number, of a dull white, speckled 

 all over with light ash brown ; the length eight lines and a 

 half, by six lines in breadth. The young are supplied Avitli 

 insects and soft vegetables, which are also the principal 

 substances consumed by the old birds during spring and 

 summer, and at other seasons of the year they feed on grain 

 and seeds ; both young and old flying in flocks with House 

 Sparrows, Chaffinches, and other Finches, and Buntings, in 

 and about farm-yards, corn-stacks, and any other places likely 

 to supply food. 



The common call-note of the Tree Sparrow is a mono- 

 tonous chirp, not unlike that of the common House Sparrow, 

 but more shrill ; and of its higher powers of song, Mr. Blyth 

 says, that " it consists of a number of these chirps, inter- 

 mixed with some pleasing notes, delivered in a continuous 

 unbroken strain, sometimes for many minutes together, very 

 loudly, but having a characteristic sparrow-like tone through- 

 out." 



The Tree Sparrow is a rare species in most of the ex- 

 treme southern counties of England, and is not included in 

 some county catalogues of Sussex, Dorsetshire, Devonshire, or 

 Cornwall ; but Mr. E. H. Rodd, of Penzance, mentions in a 

 private communication, that the Falmouth Museum contains 

 a single specimen. It is not uncommon in Shropshire, as I 

 learn from Robert Slaney, Esq. M.P. and Mr. Thomas Eyton. 

 In Lancaster it has been observed about Chat Moss. On the 

 eastern side of England, this bird appears to be a winter 



