( 38 ) 

 DISCOVERY OF A COLONY OF TREE-SPARROWS 

 ON INISHTRAHULL ISLAND, CO. DONEGAL. 



With Remarks on the Distribution op this Species 

 IN Ireland. 



BY 



Peopessor C. J. PATTEN, m.a., m.d., sc.d. 



On March 22nd, 1913 — the day after I arrived on 

 InishtrahuU Island — as I was ascending the rugged path- 

 way which leads to the east headland where the light- 

 house is situated, I noticed two Tree-Sparrows. As they 

 remained perched on a telephone-wire I surmised that 

 they were migrants resting en route, and having inspected 

 them carefully I passed on. Just then however some- 

 thing frightened them, and as they flew I watched their 

 course. They did not proceed far, but aHghted on the 

 slate roof of the school-house, some three hundred 

 yards off. I hastily followed, and drawing close I found 

 that they were quite at home here. BeUeving then that 

 these birds were residents on the island, not casual 

 migrants, I resolved to make a very careful survey of 

 their haunts. 



The next morning I made an early start, and before 

 the natives were astir I had found quite a number of 

 Tree-Sparrows foraging among the garbage outside the 

 cabins. The birds frequently consorted with Rock- 

 Pipits. From my experiences of Tree-Sparrows in many 

 other districts I expected that they would be shy and 

 difficult to observe.* But there was no need to rise 

 specially early or approach them by stealth, for they 

 were tame and hopped about the doorways almost as 

 impudently as would House-Sparrows. Indeed they 

 were most easily watched a little later on when the 

 fowls (of which there were many on the island) were 



* Along Dublin coast for instance, I have often noticed how difficult 

 it is to approach the Tree-Sparrow, and Mr. W. J. WUliams, for many 

 years familiar with the habits of this bird here, remarks that "it is 

 the wildest small bird in the covmtry," vide Irish Naturalist, October, 

 1906, p. 236. 



