FINCHES 145 



or on any projection above the ground, and in no wise neat or attractive in 

 appearance. In all these respects it is, indeed, the very opposite of the compact 

 structure built by the chaffinch. Of the European kinds, the tree-sparrow (Passer 

 rnontanus) is a bird of the open country, most at home among wooded hills, and 

 choosing, as a rule, leafy woods near pastures, and ploughed fields containing 

 plenty of hollow trees, especially willows, although also resorting to orchards and 

 hedgerow-trees. At all seasons it may be seen in the fields in pairs, or larger 

 parties, and in winter generally associating with other finches and yellow 

 buntings in searching for seeds in farmyards and villages. The tree-sparrow is 

 more of a migratory bird than the house-sparrow, from which it is distinguished 

 by living principally on insects, in hunting for which it clings to the trees and 

 examines the bark. It nests in the hollows of trees, especially willows, oaks, and 

 alders, and shelters in rocky clefts, and, in autumn, among reeds. Sometimes it 

 selects for a nesting-place the deserted abode of a vulture, eagle, or stork, as is often 

 the case on the Danube between Pressburg and Orsova. The nests of both tree- 

 sparrows and house-sparrows are placed at a considerable height, and both are 

 built of the same material, and in the same disorderly way. They contain eggs 

 two or three times a year, the first clutch being laid at the beginning of April. 

 The tree-sparrow is a lively, good-looking bird, always on the move, wagging its 

 head and its tail every now and then ; quarrelling one minute with its 

 fellows and making peace the next. Generally this bird is on good terms with 

 buntings, larks, greenfinches, linnets, and others, although not with its cousin the 

 house-sparrow. When arriving in flocks at a reed-bed, for a night's rest, tree- 

 sparrows are in every way as noisy as house-sparrows in an avenue. The 

 tree-sparrow ranges from Portugal in the south all over central and northern 

 Europe, as well as the greater part of Asia as far as Japan, the Malay Peninsula, 

 and Java. In the north it flourishes in higher latitudes than the house-sparrow, 

 and in southern Europe is rarer than its relative, although in Germany the two 

 are equally numerous. In China it replaces the house-spaiTow in villages and 

 towns, and the same may be said in Bulgaria and Servia. Abundant in 

 Germany and Austria, it is not uncommon, though local, in the British Isles, 

 where it is resident in the east of Ireland, along the whole eastern coast 

 of Scotland up to Sutherlandshire, and in the eastern and midland counties 

 of England. 



In the crossbills the tips of the beak cross one another so as 

 Crossbill. ., . 



to form a most effectual instrument for opening the scales of pine- 

 cones, and extracting the seeds which constitute the principal food of these curious 

 birds. Crossbills are distributed over Europe, Asia, and North America, and 

 everywhere simulate parrots in their movements, climbing about the trees and 

 on the pine-cones with the help of their beaks, in the manner characteristic of 

 those birds. 



The crossbill (Loxia curvirostra) is found in all pine-forests, especially those 

 abounding in Scots pines, the seeds of which are its principal food ; and it always 

 chooses for its residence localities where the pine seeds are particularly large ; and 

 in search of these it is continually moving about the country. Early in June and 

 July these birds begin their wanderings in parties of from twenty to twenty-five ; 

 vol. 1. — 10 



