104 THE BIRDS OF SHERWOOD FOREST. 



it as the tree sparrow, the dull chestnut of the head and 

 nape forming a clear distinction from its relative, the 

 house sparrow. Further observation showed me that it 

 was more abundant than I had supposed ; indeed, so 

 much so that I cannot call it very rare. 



With us it exclusively inhabits the jcultivated^jdis- 

 tricts, the D^jjows^and^^j^^^gunds being much re- 

 sorted to. As far as I have noticed, its nest has gene- 

 rally been placed in the hollows of pollard willows, of 

 which numbers grow along the banks of the stream ; 

 the old oaTSfTnHEEiTTorest offer innumerable cavities 

 in their decayed arms and trunks, but I never saw the 

 tree sparrow avail itself of them ; nor indeed have I 

 ever met with it in woods. 



Its habits are more shy than those of the house spar- 

 row, and though easily recognised as a sparrow, yet its 

 general form has a more graceful outline, and it is rather 

 less in size. With the robust form it also lacks the pert 

 impudence of its congener ; and even in winter I 

 never saw it mingle with the flocks of the latter which 

 throng our farm and stack yards at that season. Its 

 ordinary call is similar to that of the house sparrow, but 

 shriller in tone ; and it sometimes utters a few consecu- 

 tive notes which are meant for a song, but have not much 

 music in them. The eggs have a dull whitish ground, 

 rather finely speckled all over with greyish brown. They 

 do not vary much either in size or markings, though now 

 and then I have found an egg in which the usually close 

 speckles were replaced by larger markings and spots, 

 sparingly distributed. 



No bird is so well known or so universally distributed 

 throughout the British Isles as the House Sparrow 

 (Passer domesticus). Town and country, smiling fields 



