134 BRITISH BIRDS 



houses as to be quite a nuisance from its shrill, incessant chirping.' 

 This bird is the common house-sparrow of China and Japan, the 

 Philippines, Burma, and more or less over the whole Malayan region. 



In its habits it is more active and lively than its more domestic 

 relation, and is more at home on trees, and may be seen moving 

 about among the lesser branches and twigs with much freedom, 

 sometimes seeking its food there, after the manner of the siskin and 

 redpoll; but it feeds principally on the ground. It can scarcely 

 be called a song-bird, its most song-like sounds being composed of 

 a few chirruping notes uttered in the pairing season. Its voice, both 

 in its attempted singing and in its ordinary chirp and call-notes, is 

 much shriller than that of the common sparrow. 



Like that species, it breeds both in holes and on trees. A hole 

 in the rotten wood of a pollard willow by the waterside is a favourite 

 site, and it also nests in holes under the eaves or thatch of a barn 

 or other outhouse, and in holes in ruins, old walls, and rocks. The 

 nest is made of dry grass, loosely put together, and lined with some 

 soft material wool, or feathers, or hair. Four to six eggs are laid, 

 bluish white in ground-colour, the whole egg thickly mottled with 

 brown of different shades. Two, and even three, broods are reared 

 in the season. 



In winter the tree-sparrows gather in small flocks, and are often 

 found associating with the common sparrow, chaffinch, bramb- 

 ling, and other species. At this season they subsist principally on 

 seeds of weeds and grass, but in summer they are partly insecti- 

 vorous. 



Chaffinch. 

 Fringilla coelebs. 



Forehead black ; crown and nape greyish blue ; back and 

 scapulars chestnut tinged with green ; rump green ; breast 

 chestnut -red, fading into white on the belly ; wings black, with 

 two white bands ; coverts of the secondaries tipped with yellow ; 

 tail black, the two middle feathers ash-grey, the two outer ,on each 

 side, black, with a broad, oblique white band. Female : head, back, 

 and scapulars ash-brown tinged with olive ; lower parts greyish 

 white ; the transverse bands less distinct. Length, six inches. 



The chaffinch is one of the most popular song-birds in Britain ; 

 it is very much with us, being universal in its distribution in this 



