86 THE BIEDS OP OXFORDSHIRE. 



Ti 



THE TREE SPARROW. 



Passer montanus. 



The Tree Sparrow is a common resident, generally dis- 

 tributed, breeding in various situations but generally in holes 

 of trees, especially in the apple and in pollard willows by the 

 streams, nesting also in the roofs of cattle sheds or hovels, 

 and, as Mr. C. M. Prior has observed, in old Magpie's nests. 

 In its breeding habits it is somewhat local, several pairs 

 generally nesting in close proximity and often forming little 

 colonies. The late Rev. T. W. Falcon at Charlton-on- 

 Otmoor noticed them ' breeding in small fraternities in holes 

 of the thatch of outlying cattle sheds ■* [in lit.), and I knew 

 of one such among the timbers of a girder bridg'e where the 

 railway line crosses the canal near Banbury, and of others in 

 orchards, and rows of pollard willows. Mr. J. E. Harting 

 writes of a colony existing for many years at Standlake. ' Of 

 twenty nests taken there, one was in a faggot-stack, one 

 in a hole of a decayed elm, two in holes of pollard ash, four 

 in holes of pollard willow, and twelve in holes in decayed 

 apple-trees in orchards ' {Handbook of British Birds, p. xvi). 

 Mr. Warner informed me that two broods were reared at that 

 place in a small hole in an apple-tree in his orchard in 1883 

 {31S.). In winter Tree Sparrows gather together in little 

 flocks, and when joining other species prefer the company of 

 Greenfinches to that of other birds. They are usually found 

 roosting in the tall hedgerows and ivied hedgerow trees. 

 Mr. Falcon wrote, ' In winter they come into my garden and 

 roost, not with the other Sparrows in the ivy, but by them- 

 selves in solitary evergreens ' (in tit.). I have also known 

 them taken when roosting in holes along the eaves of cattle 

 hovels in the fields. The Tree Sparrow is a shy bird, and 

 when disturbed in the hedgerows generally flies up to the very 

 top of the tallest tree near. 



