TREE SPARROW. 517 



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 distribution ; 

 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 building 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 w r hen 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 abounding with pollards, ash, and 



