74 BRITISH BIRDS. 



cheeks, sides of neck, and belly dirty white ; bill and 

 claws blackish ; tarsi brown. Length 6'oo. In winter 

 bill is brown and plumage duller. Female: duller and 

 browner ; lacks grey head and black throat. 



Common and resident both in towns and country ; 

 gregarious in winter. Nest : placed in holes of all kinds, 

 and in trees or hedges ; nests of House and Sand Martins 

 are often usurped. Eggs : 5 or 6 ; greyish or greenish- 

 white, spotted veiy variably with dusky-brown, olive and 

 grey ; size "85 by *6o. 



90. Passer montanus (Linn.). TREE-SPARROW. 



Hab. Palaearctic region ; in Europe north to lat. 

 70 (Norway), but rare in extreme south. 



Male : crown, nape and lesser wing-coverts soft reddish- 

 brown ; lore, and a streak under and behind eye black ; 

 cheek and side of neck white, with a noticeable black 

 patch in centre ; upper parts as in P. domesticus, but 

 both median and greater wing-coverts tipped with white, 

 forming a double bar ; throat and upper breast black ; 

 belly greyish white ; bill blackish ; iris hazel ; tarsi light 

 brown. Length 575. Female identical ; young also 

 scarcely differ, even in nestling plumage. 



Generally distributed, but scarcer than P. domesticus, 

 and unknown in towns ; breeds very commonly in 

 Middlesex, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Kent, and regularly 

 over midland and eastern counties; rare in south-west 

 Wales, counties north of Nottinghamshire and Scotland. 

 In Ireland, not uncommon in Co. Dublin, but apparently 

 overlooked elsewhere. Nest : in narrow-apertured holes 

 in pollard willows and oaks, sometimes in thatched roofs, 

 often in holes or in crevices of sea-cliffs ; composed of dry 

 grass and a quantity of feathers. Eggs : 4 to 6 ; readily 

 distinguished from House-Sparrow's ; white, closely 



