THE SPARROWS. 51 



kinds of materials, but thickly and warmly lined with feathers. 

 It is usually placed in holes of buildings and trees, or under the 

 eaves of roofs; it often occupies House-Martins' nests and even 

 the burrows of Sand-Martins. Its reproductive powers are 

 proverbial, and as many as three broods are often reared in the 

 season. 



Eggs. Four to six in number, very variable in colour, even 

 in specimens of the same clutch. Ground-colour white or 

 greenish white, with spots and blotches of brown, purplish or 

 greenish in tint. Occasionally the eggs are so thickly mottled 

 with brown as to be nearly uniform, and a common type of 

 Sparrow's egg is white, dotted all over with tiny black markings. 

 Axis, o'S-ro inch; diam., o'6-o'65. 



II. THE TREE-SPARROW. PASSER MONTANUS. 



Fringilla montana^ Linn., S. N., i., p. 324 (1766). 



Passer mont anus ) Macg., Br. B., i., p. 351 (1837); Dresser, B. 

 Eur., iii., p. 597, pi. 178 (1875) ; Newt. ed. Yarr., ii., p. 82 

 (1876); B. O. U. List Br. B., p. 51 (1883); Sharpe, Catr- 

 B. Brit. Mus., xii., p. 301 (1888) ; Lilford, Col. Fig. Br. 

 B., pt. ix. (1888); Saunders, Man., p. 173 (1889). 



Adult Male. Throat and fore-neck black; back streaked 

 with black ; head uniform chocolate-brown ; lesser wing-coverts 

 uniform brown, not chestnut ; ear-coverts ashy whitish, with a 

 black patch on the lower parts ; sides of neck white ; under 

 surface of body ashy ; bill black ; legs light brown ; iris 

 brown. Total length, 5*6 inches; culmen, 0*45 ; wing, 275 ; 

 tail, 2*0; tarsus, 07. 



Adult Female. Similar to the male in colour. Total length, 

 5 -2 inches; wing, 2*65. 



Unlike the House-Sparrow, there is scarcely any difference 

 between the plumage of the Tree-Sparrow in summer and 

 winter, and the summer plumage is not acquired by any shed- 

 ding of the pale tips to the feathers. Young birds resemble 

 the adults, but are duller in colour. 



Range in Great Britain. According to Mr. Howard Saunders, 

 the Tree-Sparrow is extending its range in the British Islands. 

 It is an inhabitant chiefly of the eastern counties of Scotland 



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