88 BRITISH BIRDS, WITH THEIR NESTS AND EGGS. 
This species is of no interest as a cage-bird, unless hand-reared: a caught 
Sparrow rarely lives long, is always wild, vicious, voracious, and unmusical; if 
hand-reared it has been known to learn and sing the songs of the Goldfinch, 
Linnet, Canary, and Skylark. A friend of mine had one which imitated the 
Canary’s song perfectly, but seemed ashamed of its performance, for it always 
turned its face to the wall and sang quite softly; it also never sang until the 
evening when the Canaries had gone to sleep. For feeding caged Sparrows I 
should recommend sunflower-seed, oats, Canary, and German-rape; groundsel- and 
plantain-heads; with a few insects and their larvee. 
Albinism seems to be on the increase in this species, and more particularly in 
London; where, if one examines each flock that one passes in a half-hour’s walk 
through the streets, it is not at all unusual to see several pied varieties: there 
are always two or three among those which collect for crumbs in front of the 
Natural History Museum. 
Family—FRINGILLID/AE. Subfamily—FRINGILLINA. 
‘THE TREE-SPARROW. 
Passer montanus, ANN. 
EEBOHM gives the distribution of this bird as follows :—‘‘ The Tree-Sparrow 
is common, though somewhat local, throughout the Palearctic Region from 
the Atlantic to the Pacific up to and, in Europe, slightly beyond the Arctic circle. 
It appears to be very rare in North Africa, and to be absent altogether from 
Greece, Asia Minor, Palestine, Central and Southern Persia, Baluchistan, and India 
south of the Himalayas; it is, however, abundant in Turkestan, Afghanistan, and 
the Himalayas, and is found in suitable localities throughout the rest of Eastern 
‘Asia, including Japan, Formosa, Hainan, and Java.’ 
