94 THE MOUNTAIN OR TREE SPARROW 
»* 
ceases, and the combatants return to their various occupations. 
A writer in the Naturalist gives an account of a fray of this kind, 
during which three male birds fell at his feet one after another 
either dead or dying; but cases of this kind are very rare. 
Sparrows build their nests at a considerable elevation from the 
ground, but are by no means particular as to the locality. At the 
period when most farmhouses and cottages were thatched, the 
eaves were their favourite resort, and here they hollowed out for 
themselves most comfortable dwellings. The general employment 
of tiles or slates has interfered with this arrangement; but they 
will fix upon any projection, niche, crack, or hole which will hold a 
nest, and if these are all occupied, content themselves with a tree ; 
but, as far as my own observation goes, the number built in trees 
far exceeds that to be found in other localities. Very frequently 
they appropriate the nest of the House Martin. The nest itself 
is a rude structure, composed mainly of straw and hay, and lined 
with feathers and any other soft materials which they can find. 
Two or three broods are reared every year, the number of eggs 
being usually five. The young are fed on worms, caterpillars, 
and insects of various kinds. 
THE MOUNTAIN OR TREE SPARROW 
PASSER MONTANUS 
Crown and back of the head chestnut-brown ; lore, ear-coverts, and throat 
black; neck almost surrounded by a white collar; upper plumage 
resembling the last ; wing with two transverse white bars. The female 
scarcely differs from the male. Length five inches and a half. Eggs as 
in the last. 
THE Mountain Sparrow seems scarcely to deserve its name, as 
it is by no means confined to mountainous districts. It is abundant 
all over the European continent, and is to be met with here and 
there in many parts of England in the east of Scotland and of 
late years in Ireland and in the Hebrides; but it is nowhere so 
abundant as the House Sparrow, which it resembles in all respects, 
except that the head is of a bright chestnut colour, and the neck 
wears a white collar. I have never seen it except in society with 
the common species, and could never detect any difference either 
in flight or note ; but other observers state that the flight is slow 
and constrained, and the note assumes more the character of a 
song. The nest is placed in soft rotten wood of pollard willows 
and other trees, in hollow trees and under the thatch of buildings. 
