542 FRINGILLID^. 



every country in the world, as entitled to generic distinc- 

 tion among the Finches, and in continuing to them also 

 the name of Passer, bestowed upon them by Ray. Their 

 habits, particularly in reference to the situation chosen for 

 the nest, are distinct from those of the Finches generally, 

 and in this circumstance our two native specimens agree 

 more closely than has usually been stated. The Tree 

 Sparrow is an active lively bird, in appearance, and in 

 many of its other peculiarities, very similar to the well- 

 known House Sparrow, and for which, I have no doubt, 

 the Tree Sparrow has been often mistaken. It is not so 

 numerous as a species, and much more local in distribu- 

 tion ; but small colonies of them are to be found in various 

 counties. In size it is smaller than our Common Sparrow, 

 and is generally described as frequenting trees remote from 

 houses, and buildings in the holes of decayed pollards. 

 That these are not their universal habits, I learn from the 

 Rev. James F. Dimock, and his brother George Dimock, 

 of Uppingham in Rutlandshire, to whom I am indebted 

 for the following particulars from their own observation. 

 These birds frequently build in the thatch of a barn, in 

 company with the House Sparrow, not however entering 

 the thatch from the inside of the building like them, but 

 by holes in the outside ; five or six instances of this sort 

 occurred in one building, and one or two pairs built about 

 the farmhouse ; to be certain as to the species, some old 

 birds were watched, were shot when quitting their holes, 

 and their eggs taken ; in other instances the young birds 

 were reared from the nest. They also built in the deserted 

 nests of Magpies and Crows, in which they formed domed 

 nests, as does the Common Sparrow, when it builds among 

 the branches of trees, and one pair built in a hole of a 

 tree that had been occupied by a Green Woodpecker. 

 These different modes of building occur in a country 



