TREE SPARROW 



Passer luoutainis 



Tree Sparrow is not nearly so common a bird as the 

 House Sparrow, and is much more locally distributed. In 

 the eastern and midland counties of England it is most 

 abundantly distributed, becoming rarer in the northern 

 counties. In Scotland it breeds in several of the eastern 

 and northern counties, and I myself observed a solitary 

 pair in the Shetland group, near Baltasound in Unst. 

 In Ireland it is rare. 



The Tree Sparrow is not as a rule found so near the dwellings of man 

 as its relative the House Sparrow. Its favourite haunts are among the fields 

 and wilder districts, along the rows of pollard willows fringing the banks of 

 some quiet stream, or among the fir plantations on the bare hillsides among 

 the moors. It is a very much shyer bird than the House Sparrow, whose 

 long residence among the busy thoroughfares has imparted a certain fearless- 

 ness to it, but otherwise they are very much alike in their habits. It is quite as 

 pugnacious as its town relative, and several of them may often be seen engaged 

 in a regular scrimmage, tumbling over each other and keeping up a chorus of 

 angry chirps. Among the trees it is a much more active bird than the House 

 Sparrow, and hops from twig to twig with the agility of a Tit its flight 

 seems to be more rapid, and it is easily recognised by its more musical 

 note. 



The food of the Tree Sparrow consists chiefly of insects and their larvae 

 during summer, and of small seeds and a little grain in winter; during the 

 latter season it may often be seen in company with House Sparrows and 

 Chaffinches in the stackyards, or about the barns and dunghills in some 

 steading. At this season the resident birds are no doubt increased in 

 numbers by migrants from the more northern portions of their range, 

 probably from Scandinavia. 



The Tree Sparrow can hardly be said to possess a song, but during the 

 pairing season it utters a few notes which are chiefly modifications of its call- 

 VOL. rv. 1 57 



