SPARROW-HAWK 897 
truth will not be known until a series of experiments, conducted 
by scientifically-trained investigators, has been instituted, which, to 
the shame of our numerous agricultural and horticultural societies, 
has not yet been done. It is quite likely that the result will be 
unfavourable to the House-Sparrow, from what has been said above 
as to its being so dependent on man for its subsistence ; but, while 
the evil it does is so apparent,—for instance, the damage to ripen- 
ing grain-crops,—the extent of the counterbalancing benefit is 
quite uncertain, and from the nature of the case is* often over- 
looked. In the South of Europe the House-Sparrow is in some 
measure replaced by two allied species, P. hispaniolensis and P. 
italiz, whose habits are essentially identical with its own; and it is 
doubtful whether the Sparrow of India, P. indicus, is specifically 
distinct ; but Africa has several members of the genus which are 
decidedly so. 
3. The TREE-SPARROW, the Fringi/la montana of Linnzus, and 
Passer montanus of modern writers, in appearance much resembling 
the House-Sparrow, but easily distinguishable by its reddish-brown 
crown, the black patch on the sides of its neck and its doubly- 
barred wings,’ is a much more local species, in England generally 
frequenting the rows of pollard-willows that line so many rivers 
and canals, in the holes of which it breeds; but in some Eastern 
countries, and especially in China, it frequents houses, even in 
towns, and so fills the place of the House-Sparrow. Its geo- 
graphical distribution is extensive, and marked by some curious 
characters, among which may be mentioned that, being a great 
wanderer, it has effected settlements even in such remote islands as 
the Feroes and some of the Outer Hebrides. 
That the genus Passer properly belongs to the Fringillidx is 
admitted by most ornithologists, yet there have been some who 
would refer it to the Ploceidze (WEAVER-BIRD), if they are to be 
accounted as forming a distinct Family. The American birds called 
“Sparrows” have little in common with the members of the genus 
Passer, and probably belong rather to the Family Emberizide than 
to the Iringillidx (cf. TOWHEE). 
SPARROW-HAWK, Sw. Sparrhék, Dutch Sperwer, Germ. 
Sperber, O. H. G. Sparvari, O. Fr. Esprevier, Mod. Fr. Epervier (all 
the Report of Observations of Injurious Insects and Common Crop Pests, annually 
made by Miss Ormerod, and in a little volume, with the title of The Housc- 
Sparrow, published in 1885, which consists chiefly of three essays by Mr. J. H. 
Gurney, jun., the late Lieut.-Col. C. Russell, and Prof. Coues, but the last has 
only reference to the behaviour of the bird in the United States of America, 
where, from the reason above assigned, its presence was expected by almost all 
well-informed persons to be detrimental. 
1 A more important difference is that the two sexes have almost the same 
plumage, while in the House-Sparrow they are unlike in this respect, 
57 
