TREE SPARROW. 517 
tion among the Finches, and in continuing to them also 
the name of Passer, bestowed upon them. by Ray. Their 
habits, particularly in reference to the situation chosen for 
the nest, are distinct from those of the Finches generally, 
and in this circumstance our two native specimens agree 
more closely than has usually been stated. The Tree 
Sparrow is an active lively bird, in appearance, and in 
many of its other peculiarities, very similar to the well- 
known House Sparrow, and for which, I have no doubt, 
the Tree Sparrow has been often mistaken. It is not so 
numerous as a species, and much more local in distribution ; 
but small colonies of them are to be found in various 
counties. In size it is smaller than our Common Sparrow, 
and is generally described as frequenting trees remote from 
houses, and building in the holes of decayed pollards. 
That these are not their universal habits, I learn from the 
Rey. James F. Dimock, and his brother George Dimock, 
of Uppingham in Rutlandshire, to whom I am indebted for 
the following particulars from their own observation. These 
birds frequently build in the thatch of a barn, in company 
with the House Sparrow, not however entering the thatch 
from the inside of the building like them, but by holes in the 
outside; five or six instances of this sort occurred in one 
building, and one or two pairs built about the farmhouse ; to 
be certaim as to the species, some old birds were watched, 
were shot when quitting their holes, and their eggs taken ; in 
other instances the young birds were reared from the nest. 
They also built in the deserted nests of Magpies and Crows, 
in which they formed domed nests, as does the Common 
Sparrow, when it builds among the branches of trees, and 
one pair built in a hole of a tree that had been occupied by 
a Green Woodpecker. These different modes of building 
occur in a country abounding with pollards, ash, and 
