About the House. 47 



This is another European species which, since its introduction about 



European House fort y Y ears a g has become one of the commonest birds 



Sparrow. about our houses, in cities, towns, and villages, and now is 



passer domesticus (Linn.), too familar to all to need a detailed description or further 



notice here. 



European Tree The European Tree Sparrow has been introduced 



Sparrow. and become naturalized in the city of St. Louis, Missouri, 



passer montanus (Linn.), and vicinity. Its habits are very similar to those of its 

 more widely distributed ally, which it resembles in general appearance. 



A rose colored sparrow seems an anomaly, but such is the adult male 

 Purple Finch. Individuals vary greatly in intensity of color, but a typical 

 Purple Finch. ma ^ e ^ as a predominant rosy red color which is browner 

 carpodacus purpureus on the back, wings, and tail and which shades into white 

 on the belly. The females are quite different, they lack 

 all traces of the reddish color, and have the general appearance of a striped 

 sparrow, the prevailing colors being olive and gray on a grayish white ground, 

 becoming clear white on the under parts. The young birds of both sexes re- 

 semble the adult female, but lack much of the olive shading, the gray being 

 darker and on the back tinged with brownish. 



The birds are rather more than six inches long, have a heavy, conical bill, 

 with pronounced feather tufts over the nostrils and a distinctly forked tail. 



The nest is a shallow, thin affair, placed on some horizontal limb, gener- 

 ally in evergreen trees, at varying distance from the ground, but rarely above 

 thirty feet. It is built of roots and grasses and lined with finer material and 

 long hairs. The eggs vary from three to six in number, are blue in color, 

 spotted at the larger end with brown, and are four fifths of an inch long and 

 less than three fifths in their other diameter. 



A bird of Eastern North America, it breeds from Long Island north and 

 winters from the New England States south to the Gulf. At many places 

 where it breeds it is familiar in gardens and about houses. Its food is seeds 

 and berries, juniper and the like, young leaf buds and the blossom buds of 

 many fruit trees. 



