378 BRITISH BIRDS' NESTS. 



brown, streaked with black ; lower part of back 

 and upper tail-coverts brownish-grey. Lesser wing- 

 coverts bright rusty -brown ; greater black, with rusty- 

 coloured edges and white tips ; quills dull black, 

 bordered with rusty-brown. Tail-quills greyish- 

 brown, edged with lemonish-brown. Chin and 

 throat black ; sides of neck, running somewhat far 

 back, white ; breast bright ash-grey ; belly dull 

 white, tinged with huffish-brown on the sides, vent, 

 and under tail-coverts. Legs, toes, and claws pale 

 yellowish-brown . 



The female is a little smaller, but her plumage 

 differs in nothing but its lesser brilliancy from that 

 of the male. In this respect the species differs radically 

 from the House Sparrow, the female of which is not 

 adorned by the black patch on the chin and throat, 

 so conspicuous in the male. In the case of the 

 Common Sparrow the young are all like the female 

 in their first coat of feathers, but the chicks of the 

 species under notice have the chin and throat 

 black as in the case of their parents. 



Situation and Locality. Holes in pollards and 

 other trees, crevices of rocks, holes in walls, and the 

 thatch of barns. It is very local, and in few places 

 numerous. It is said to breed most commonly in 

 the midland and eastern counties of England, but 

 I have met with it far more numerously in the Outer 

 Hebrides than anywhere else. As an example of its 

 absolute commonness in some parts of the Western 

 Isles I may mention that I one day found eight 

 nests, five containing eggs and three young ones, all 

 in the ruins of one small building. Whilst at St. 

 Kilda in 1896 I succeeded in finding four Tree 

 Sparrows' nests. It is met with sparingly on the 

 mainland of Scotland, in Wales, and Ireland. 



