164 FEINGILLIDjE. 



780. Passer cinnamomeus (Gould). The Cinnamon Tree- 

 Sparrow. 



Passer cinnamomeus (Gould), Jerd. B. 2nd. ii, p. 365; Hume, 

 Rough Draft N. $ E. no. 708. 



The Cinnamon Tree-Sparrow breeds throughout the Himalayas 

 from Murree to Nepal, at elevations of from 4000 to 6000 or even 

 7000 feet. Further east it occurs, though as a straggler, but I 

 have no record of its breeding there. 



It lays in May or June, making typically a large loose nest, 

 composed of dry grass and plentifully lined with feathers, in some 

 convenient hole in a decaying tree or branch at no great elevation 

 from the ground. Occasionally it builds under the eaves of houses, 

 in the walls of sheds, and, as Colonel Marshall tells us (I have 

 never myself seen this), in deserted Swallows' nests. In the same 

 way the Common Tree-Sparrow, normally, I should suppose, a 

 tree nester, has in parts of Europe, as well as in the Eastern 

 Himalayas and Burma, become more or less of a House-Sparrow 

 in its nidification. 



As a rule the nests are ragged and shapeless externally (more 

 or less filling up the entire hole in which they are placed), with a 

 rather deep, central, circular cavity. 



Four is the usual number of eggs, but I have often found five, 

 and once as many as six. This bird breeds in great numbers about 

 Kotegurh, but rarely more than one pair is found in one tree or 

 about the same house. A hundred nests may be found within a 

 radius of a quarter of a mile, but they do not cluster together into 

 Sparrow-towns as the Willow-Sparrows do. 



Sir E. C. Buck, C.S., writes : " On the 15th June at Shah, 

 between Saraon and Groura, I found a nest of the Cinnamon Tree- 

 Sparrow containing four fresh eggs. The nest was a broad loose 

 cup of dry grass, lined with feathers, some 6 inches in diameter 

 externahy. It was placed in a hole in a thick branch about 12 

 feet from the ground." 



From Dhurmsala Captain Cock remarks : " This is a common 

 bird here ; usually breeds at an elevation of from 4000 to 5000 

 feet. It always breeds in hollow trees, especially in the rhodo- 

 dendron, and makes a large nest of grass lined with feathers after 

 the usual Sparrow fashion. It lays four eggs, smaller than those 

 of Passer domesticus. It breeds in May and June. The nest is 

 usually at a low elevation from the ground, say between 4 and 10 

 feet." 



From Murree we hear from Colonel C. H. T. Marshall that the 

 Cinnamon Tree-Sparrow " lays in deserted Swallows' nests and 

 about houses. At Dhurmsala this Sparrow always builds in trees 

 out in the forests." 



Colonel Gr. F. L. Marshall remarks : " Breeds at Nairn Tal at 

 7000 feet above the sea, most commonly in the eaves of verandahs 

 and outhouses. I have taken fresh eggs in the middle of May. 



