5 
hill-ranges of Assam, and finally in Burmah, from Ramree in Arrakan and Upper Pegu, south- 
wards to Singapore and Java.” Captain Beavan states (Ibis, 1868, p. 174) that it is “common in 
Burmah, where the natives take great care of it. The outer husk of a cocoa-nut is cut in two 
and tied together again, with a small aperture left on one side for the entrance of the bird. 
Several of these thus prepared are hung under the eaves of the house, and sometimes inside the 
quasi rooms; and the birds breed in them. The object appears to be a purely religious one ; 
the Burmese think that by thus taking care of these little birds they themselves in their next 
transmigration will, under the form of Sparrows, receive kindness in the same proportion that 
they now bestow it.” 
Northward the Tree-Sparrow is found far into Siberia. Severtzoff speaks of it as being 
common and resident throughout Turkestan. Von Middendorff met with it in the most out-of- 
the-way parts of Siberia, but never observed the common Sparrow. He was told of Sparrows 
being found at the settlements of Goroschinskoje and Argutskoje, on the Jenesei, which he — 
believes to be the present species. Von Schrenck did not observe it on the Lower Amoor, but 
met with it first on the Sachali river; and Dr. Radde observed it in the summer in Trans- 
baikalia, at Zagan-olui, and about 40 versts below Aigun. It was also found breeding on the 
shores and islands of the Amoor, about 120 versts above the mouth of the Bureja. Mr. Swinhoe 
states that it is the common house-Sparrow throughout all China, Hainan, and Formosa; and it 
is said to be common in Japan. I may also add that, according to Sir R. H. Schomburgk (Ibis, 
1864, p. 256), it is common in Siam; and Dr. Cabanis states that it is found in Manilla. 
In habits the present species has much in common with the common Sparrow, from which 
it also differs in many respects. It is even fonder of the society of others of its own species 
than that bird, but quite as quarrelsome, if not more so, and is a more active, lively bird, but 
scarcely so wary, though quite as impudent; for, not dwelling so much in the vicinity of human 
habitations, it has not the same experience of the ways of human kind. It breeds both near and 
in inhabited places, as well as in places at some distance from dwellings. It is more frequently 
seen on the ground than in trees, and hops with ease, like its ally Passer domesticus, which it 
also resembles on the wing, but is more agile and quicker in its flght, turning sharper and with 
more ease. Its note resembles that of the common Sparrow, but is softer and more agreeable, 
and may easily be distinguished by a practised ear; it is also a less noisy bird than that species. 
It feeds in the summer season chiefly on insects of various kinds, and is a bird that well deserves 
protection, because of the numerous destructive insects it devours. It feeds its young on cater- 
pillars and various kinds of insects, and is therefore a bird which is beneficial to a garden; for 
it clears the buds and foliage of the fruit-trees of numbers of noxious insect pests. Later in the 
season it feeds on seeds of various kinds, these forming its food during the winter season. 
Amongst others it is fond of the seeds of Urtica dioica, Chenopodium album, and Polygonum 
aviculare, all three of which are weeds of the most noxious kind. 
The Tree-Sparrow selects for the purposes of nidification the hollow of a tree in preference 
to an inhabited dwelling-house. It usually builds in an old hollow tree, in a hole in an old 
pollard willow, less frequently in a cleft of the rock or in an old wall; and with us in Europe, 
at least, it does not seem to care to build in a house. On the other hand, in Eastern Asia 
the present species is said to take the place of the House-Sparrow, and to frequent inhabited 
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