152 FAMILIAR WILD BIRDS. 



found in trees which are trained against walls, barns, 

 tool and summer houses. It is composed of a diversity 

 of material, and no fixed rule seems to be adhered to 

 bents, straws, moss, new and old hairs, feathers, &c. The 

 eggs number four, five, or even six, of a grey-white 

 spotted with faint red ; sometimes, but rarely, pale blue, 

 unspotted. The ground-colour varies from grey or bluish- 

 white to pea-green, the markings also being in various 

 shades, clouded, spotted, and blotched with faint red or 

 reddish-brown. 



THE TREE SPARROW. 



HOLES in pollard and other trees are chosen as desirable 

 situations by this bird for perpetuating its race, and some- 

 times in the thatches of old barns along with the Common 

 House Sparrow. Its nest is very similar to that of its 

 more widely-distributed and better-known kinsman, viz., 

 of hay, dry grass, and straw, with a liberal lining of nice 

 warm feathers. The eggs generally number four or five, 

 of a grey colour, thickly spotted with umber-brown or 

 darker grey, sometimes white with grey spots or blotches, 

 and maybe described, like the Common Sparrow's, as variable. 



THE BRAMBLING. 



SCANDINAVIA and other countries situated in high latitudes 

 are the breeding-haunts of this little bird, which builds a 

 nest very similar to the Chaffinch. It is placed fourteen or 

 twenty feet from the ground, in the fork of a branch 

 shooting out from the trunk of a birch or spruce fir-tree, 

 and composed of moss, lichens, bark, mixed with thistle- 

 down, and lined with fine grass and feathers. Its eggs 



