TREE SPARROW. 



MOUNTAIN SPARROW. 



PLATE LXXXII. 



Passer montanu*, RAY. 



Pyryita Montana, FLEMING. 



Frinyilla montana, PKNSA.NT. MONTAGU. 



Loxia Hamburgia, GMELIN. 



XIDIFICATION, it would appear, commences in February, and incuba- 

 tion in March, two or three broods being reared in the year. 



The nest is formed of hay, and is lined with wool, down, and 

 feathers. It is loosely put together, and the consequence of this 

 untidiness, the larger straws being left hanging carelessly outside, is, 

 that the situation of the nest is betrayed to the prowling bird-nester. 

 The same situation is often again occupied from year to year. 



James Dalton, Esq., of Worcester College, Oxford, informs me that 

 he has taken the nest of this bird from a Sand Martin's hole, near 

 Buckingham. They build in many various situations, most frequently 

 in a hole of a tree, whence their English name, either that formed 

 naturally by decay, or that in which some other bird, such as the 

 Woodpecker, or one of the species, has previously domiciled; sometimes 

 also in old nests that had been inhabited by Magpies and Crows; and 

 in these cases, the nest, that is of the Tree Sparrow, is domed over, 

 as is done also by the House Sparrow, when it locates its habitation 

 in similar situations. Not unfrequently they build in the thatch of 

 barns and out -ho uses, but only in thoroughly country places, the entrance 

 being from the outside; also in the tiling of houses, and in stacks and 

 wood faggots; likewise in old walls, not many feet above the ground. 

 Arthur Strickland, Esq., of Bridlington, has recorded that a pair built 



