162 TALKS ABOUT BIRDS 



better than to snap up an unwary young 

 sparrow who is out on his first trip into the 

 wide world. But this crow does not spread 

 away from India, and even there he keeps 

 mostly to the hot plains, so that you very 

 rarely see him in the mountains ; I only did 

 so once, at Darjeeling. At Darjeeling I found 

 there was a different sort of sparrow about the 

 houses, the bird we call the tree-sparrow 

 here, and see very little of, as with us it is a 

 shy and not very common bird, and does not 

 often come near buildings. 



When you do see one, you can tell it from 

 the cock house-sparrow by its having a choco- 

 late instead of grey cap, and by the black spot 

 on each of its cheeks ; it is also a smaller and 

 neater-looking bird, and the hen is not so 

 plain as the hen house-sparrow, being just like 

 her mate. Perhaps this was the original 

 sparrow in Europe and the house-sparrow 

 when it came in, if it did, from the East, drove 

 it out to the fields and woods. At any rate, 

 I found it very much at home under the eaves 

 and in the streets in Darjeeling, and so you 

 may find it in many Eastern towns where the 

 house-sparrow is not in possession ; for in- 



