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centre of the throat down to the upper breast deep black; underparts dull white with a greyish tinge, 
flanks washed with brownish ash; under tail-coverts pale ashy brown with dull white margins; bill 
black; iris brown; legs light brown. ‘Total length about 6 inches, culmen 0°45, wing 2°8, tail 2°25, 
tarsus 0°7. 
Adult Female (Amoy). Differs from the male merely in being duller in colour, the chin and upper throat 
alone being black, slightly marked with white, and the breast and flanks being washed with brown. 
Winter plumage (Hareskov, Denmark, 6th January). In this plumage the bird differs only in having the 
upper parts, if any thing, a trifle greyer, and the black on the throat rather narrower and a litile 
obscured on the lower part by whitish edges to the feathers. 
‘THRouaHOUT Europe, from within the arctic circle to the extreme south, the present species is 
met with and is generally distributed. It is also found in North Africa; and in Asia it occurs 
as far east as Japan. 
With us in Great Britain it is, though not so common as Passer domesticus, very generally, 
though somewhat locally, distributed, and resident, breeding as far north as Sutherlandshire. 
T have met with it in Kent, Middlesex, and Surrey; and it is found throughout the south of 
England, though it is very rare in some counties, and is, Yarrell says, ‘“‘not included in the 
county catalogues of Sussex, Dorsetshire, Devonshire, or Cornwall;” but, he adds, there is a 
specimen in the Falmouth Museum. It is, I may state, certainly found in Dorsetshire; but 
Mr. J. C. Mansel-Pleydell says that it is nowhere numerous, and is more local in its distribution 
than the common Sparrow. Mr. Cecil Smith informs me that it is not common in Somerset- 
shire, but is sparingly distributed over the greater part of the county. In Cambridgeshire it 
is very common, and also in Suffolk. Lord Lilford also writes to me as follows:—“ The Tree- 
Sparrow is pretty common here [ Lilford, Northamptonshire], and breeds regularly in some hollow 
ash trees in the park, as also occasionally in some old thorn bushes about the same locality. It 
is a permanent resident with us, frequenting the hedgerows and corn-fields at harvest time, and 
the rick-yards in the winter months.” Mr. Stevenson says that it is resident and breeds in 
Norfolk, although apparently confined to certain districts, and nowhere plentiful; and Mr. Cor- 
deaux states that it is resident and breeds in the Humber district. Large flocks, he adds, 
probably of migrants, visit East Lincolnshire in October, and leave again about the end of March. 
It is also found in Durham and Northumberland; and in Scotland, Mr. Robert Gray says, it was 
first recorded by Don from the mountains of Angusshire, and has since been met with in Caith- 
ness, Morayshire, and East Lothian. A few breed annually near North Berwick. On the east 
coast, he states, it cannot with certainty be included in the list of regular visitants; but he was 
informed by Mr. Duncan C. Brown that he had seen it at Arrochar, Loch Long. It has also 
been met with nesting near Ardrossan, in Ayrshire; and Mr. J. A. Harvie-Brown says that it was 
found breeding in Sutherlandshire in 1872 by Mr. T. Mackenzie, of Dornoch Castle. According 
to Thompson it does not occur in Ireland. 
Captain Feilden, who met with the present species in the Feroes, writes as follows:— 
‘Three years ago a few pairs of these birds made their appearance on the island of Skuoe; they 
probably found their way there from the rigging of some passing vessel; and finding that the 
