FRINGILLID^E. 183 



there is an olive stripe; upper parts olive-brown, 

 clouded with cinereous and spotted with blackish ; 

 rump and breast jonquil -yellow, the latter shaded 

 with cinereous; there are some dark longitudinal 

 markings on the breast and flanks ; on the wings are 

 two transverse bands, one green-yellow, the other 

 brown -yellow; tail slightly forked ; belly yellowish 

 white, with longitudinal blackish markings ; length 

 four inches and from four to five lines. The female 

 in autumn has the colours much brighter, the upper 

 parts clouded with cinereous, the under parts of a 

 dingy yellow, with a great number of longitudinal 

 spots. In the spring both sexes have the yellow 

 much purer. In the young of the year the yellow 

 tints on different parts of the plumage are much 

 less pure, especially on the head: in its nesting 

 plumage grey and greenish red are the pre- 

 dominant colours, dashed with longitudinal brown 

 markings." 



The eggs are white, with a circle of brown and 

 reddish dots and spots at the larger end.* 



TREE SPARROW, Passer montanus. The Tree or 

 Mountain Sparrow, as it is sometimes called, is by 

 no means a common bird in this county. Most of 

 the Somersetshire specimens that I have seen have 

 been taken in the neighbourhood of Wiveliscombe, 

 where it seems to be tolerably numerous. It is 



* Montagu's Dictionary, by Newman. 



