TEEE SPARROW. 71 



when they frequent, together with them, the usual places of 

 resort for the procuring of food, namely, farm-yards, and 

 other situations where it is to be obtained. 



Their flight is rather heavy, slow, and strained, as if the 

 wings were not sufficiently equal to the carriage of the body 

 through the air. They often progress along the ground in 

 the same sort of sidelong manner that the Common Sparrow 

 does ; and they have also a habit of flirting the tail slightly 

 about, especially when they first alight. 



The food of this species consists of insects and the tender 

 parts of vegetables; these in the spring and summer, their 

 'second course' being grain and seeds: with the former the 

 young are fed. 



The common note of the Tree Sparrow is a monotonous 

 chirp, not unlike that, so .well known, of the House Sparrow, 

 but more shrill; and of its higher vocal powers, Mr. Edward 

 Blyth says that it consists of a number of these chirps, 

 intermixed with some pleasing notes, delivered in a continuous 

 strain, sometimes for many minutes together, very loudly, 

 but having a characteristic Sparrow-like tone throughout. 



James Dalton, Esq., of Worcester College, Oxford, informs 

 me that he has taken the nest of this bird from a Sand 

 Martin's hole, near Buckingham. They build in many various 

 situations, most frequently in a hole of a tree, whence their 

 English name, either that formed naturally by decay, or that 

 in which some other bird, such as the Woodpecker, or one of 

 the species has previously domiciled; sometimes also, in old 

 nests that had been inhabited by Magpies and Crows; and 

 in these cases, the nest, that is that of the Tree Sparrow, 

 is domed over, as is also that of the House Sparrow, when 

 it locates its habitation in similar situations. Not unfrequently 

 they build in the thatch of barns and outhouses, but only in 

 thoroughly country places, the entrance being from the outside; 

 also in the tiling of houses, and in stacks and wood faggots; 

 likewise in old walls not many feet above the ground. Arthur 

 Strickland, Esq., of Bridlington Quay, has recorded that a 

 pair built their nest, a domed one, in a hedge in the grounds 

 of Walton Hall. 



Nidification, it would appear, commences in February, and 

 incubation in March, two or three broods being reared in 

 the year. 



The nest is formed of hay, and is lined with wool, down, 

 and feathers. It is loosely put together, and the consequence 



