80 BIRDS OF CHESHIRE. 
to be taken into serious consideration by the farmer. 
It is true that the nestlings are fed with insects, but 
through the greater part of the year the bird feeds 
upon grain. Even in the breeding season the Sparrow 
is encroaching upon the food supply of purely insect- 
ivorous species. With obtrusive familiarity, the bird 
monopolises the scraps spread in suburban gardens in 
winter, frequently to the exclusion of more deserving 
species, and repays its benefactors by pulling to pieces 
the crocuses and early spring flowers. 
The untidy nest is usually placed on houses or 
buildings, but often in the branches of orchard trees 
or hollies, corn-stacks, holes in trees, disused Magpies’ 
nests, and other diverse situations. Not only does the 
Sparrow rear its young in the nests of House Martins, 
but it frequently uses these nests as roosting-places in 
the winter. 
White, or partially white, Sparrows have often been 
obtained in Cheshire, and a pale buff variety appears to 
be not uncommon. 
TREE SPARROW. 
PASSER MONTANUS (Linneus). 
Copper-head. 
Unlike the previous species, the Tree Sparrow is very 
local in Cheshire, although it has probably been over- 
looked in some districts. It has been noticed more 
frequently in Wirral and the west of the county than 
elsewhere. Dr. Dobie mentions Hooton, Upton, Back- 
ford, and Ince as localities where it has nested, and 
states that it is not uncommon on the north side of 
Chester! In May 1894 we came across a large colony 
1 Dobie, op. cit. p. 298. 
