48 BRITISH BIRDS. [vol. vii. 



said no, and the reason the birds were smaller than those 

 on the mainland was because they had less to eat and 

 poorer stuff ! ! Speaking generally most of the natives 

 seemed to think that sparrows frequented their cabins 

 as far back as they could recollect. Now, if we favour 

 this last assumption the matter is full of interest, for if 

 the Tree-Sparrow is only of recent importation and yet 

 sparrows have perennially inhabited the island, it follows 

 as a corollary that the Tree-Sparrow completely sup- 

 planted its larger congener the House-Sparrow. I hardly 

 think such is hkely ; and yet Mr. Ussher in his Birds 

 of Ireland, in writing his article on the House-Sparrow, 

 p. 59, states that it " breeds on all the inhabited islands 

 of the myrth and west." If Mr. Ussher actually proved 

 this point by personal investigation, or by obtaining 

 specimens of House-Sparrows from InishtrahuU prior 

 to 1900, when his book was pubHshed, then the ques- 

 tion of the smaller species supplanting the larger at a 

 subsequent period cannot be summarily dismissed. If 

 on the other hand Mr. Ussher merely assumed that 

 the HQuse-Sparrow frequented InishtrahuU (an 

 assumption one might be tempted to make on 

 account of the considerable numbers of House- 

 Sparrows which, I understand, frequent the more or 

 less adjacent islands of the north coast, viz. Tory 

 and RathUn), it may in reahty have been the Tree- 

 Sparrow, not the House-Sparrow, which inhabited 

 InishtrahuU Island when Mr. Ussher's book was 

 pubUshed. Curiously enough Thompson* makes no 

 mention of InishtrahuU when dealing with the distribu- 

 tion of the House-Sparrow, yet he says that " these 

 birds are very common in the Island of Rathlin (Dr. J. W. 

 MarshaU), and in August, 1845, several were observed 

 about the Round Tower and neighbouring cottages 

 in Tory Island (Mr. Hyndman)." Personally I am 

 rather surprised at the absence of the House-Sparrow 

 from InishtrahuU, for it is abundant on the adjacent 



* Thompson, Natural History of Ireland, Vol. I., 1849, p. 256. 



