MACPHERSON : TREE SPARROW IN THE LAKE DISTRICT, 93 



Sunday, I had left my gun at home, and could only scruthiise him 

 through a glass. Bechstein long ago stated that, iti captivity, the 

 two species interbreed. In 1880 a male House Sparrow paired with 

 a female Tree Sparrow in an aviary at the Zoological Gardens, but 

 their eggs proved unfertile. Such was usually the ex[)erience of 

 Mr. Otty, of Norwich, who eventually succeeded in obtaining a fine 

 hybrid between the two species. At Mr. Gurney's kind suggestion, 

 I examined this interesting bird at Norwich, August 26th, 1887. 

 It showed much of the Tree Sparrow in its plumage, and also in its 

 actions, but the shape seemed to correspond closely with that of the 

 House Sparrow. But to return to the wild Tree Sparrow. I observe 

 that Mr. Whitlock says nothing about the song of the species. In 

 1884, Mr. Whitaker recorded, in the 'Zoologist,' his first experience 

 of the song of the Tree Sparrow (Zoo)., 1884, p. 232). But, long 

 before our time, the late Edward Blyth drew attention to the song of 

 the Tree Sparrow, remarking that the Tree Sparrow, like the common 

 species, has a great variety of chirrups, one of which is peculiarly 

 musical and sweet, and may be rendered ' pee-cu-weep.' Its proper 

 song, he says, consists of a number of these chirps, intermixed with 

 some pleasing notes, delivered in a continuous strain, sometimes for 

 many minutes together (cf. Mag. Nat. Hist., vii. p. 487). Now, having 

 kept Tree Sparrows in confinement, I know their notes tolerably 

 well, and found that in captivity the males sang from March onwards. 

 In 1885 I listened to one of the wild Tree Sparrows in Eigg, singing 

 merrily, on the ist of July, when the earlier broods were strong on 

 the wing. This seemed late. But in 1881 I heard and saw a male 

 Tree Sparrow singing the full song of the species, in a fruit tree that 

 grew in a road-side orchard near Montreux, in Septemlier. I believe 

 that this is the first record of the Tree Sparrow singing in autumn. 

 I, at all events, have not drawn the attention of any but my friends 

 to the fact previously. I do not wish to discuss the variety of situa- 

 tions selected as breeding-quarters by the Tree Sparrow, and ranging 

 from the chalk cliffs of Kent to the pollard willows of the Thames, 

 and the old ruins and stone walls affected in the north, with much 

 besides. But there is just one other ])oint that may interest 

 Mr. Whitlock, to whom we are so much indebted for his admirable 

 paper. Some years ago, when I kept a large number of British birds 

 m confinement, it used to interest us to allow our birds to range 

 about our rooms. But I found that Tree Sparrows, if liberated from 

 their cages, not only flew directly for the nearest window panes, with 

 great swiftness and force, but that they almost always lamed them- 

 selves in so doing. Other birds also flew at times against the panes, 

 and sometimes killed themselves, as occurred to two light Goldfinch 



March 1890. 



