BRITISH BIRDS, WITH THEIR NESTS AND EGGS. 



This species is of no interest as a cage-bird, unless hand-reared : a canght 

 Sparrow rarely lives long, is always wild, vicious, voracious, and unmusical ; if 

 hand-reared it has been known to learn and sing the songs of the Goldfinch, 

 Linnet, Canary, and Skylark. A friend of mine had one which imitated the 

 Canary's song perfectly, but seemed ashamed of its performance, for it always 

 turned its face to the wall and sang quite softly ; it also never sang until the 

 evening when the Canaries had gone to sleep. For feeding caged Sparrows I 

 should recommend sunflower-seed, oats, Canary, and German-rape ; groundsel- and 

 plantain-heads ; with a few insects and their larvae. 



Albinism seems to be on the increase in this species, and more particularly in 

 London ; where, if one examines each flock that one passes in a half-hour's walk 

 through the streets, it is not at all unusual to see several pied varieties : there 

 are always two or three among those which collect for crumbs in front of the 

 Natural History Museum. 



Family FRINGILLID^. Subfamily FRINGILLINsE. 



THE TREE-SPARROW. 



Passer montanus, LINN. 



Q^EEBOHM gives the distribution of this bird as follows: " The Tree- Sparrow 

 V^ is common, though somewhat local, throughout the Palsearctic Region from 

 the Atlantic to the Pacific up to and, in Europe, slightly beyond the Arctic circle. 

 It appears to be very rare in North Africa, and to be absent altogether from 

 Greece, Asia Minor, Palestine, Central and Southern Persia, Baluchistan, and India 

 south of the Himalayas ; it is, however, abundant in Turkestan, Afghanistan, and 

 the Himalayas, and is found in suitable localities throughout the rest of Eastern 

 Asia, including Japan, Formosa, Hainan, and Java." 



