Passeres 73 



nest is usually high up in a silver fir or larch, and placed 

 on a horizontal branch ; sometimes it is much nearer 

 to the ground or even in a bush. The substructure is 

 commonly of little twigs and the eggs are bluish in tint 

 with dark spots. 



We need not enter into any details about the colour 

 or habits of the House Sparrow {Passer domesticus), but 

 may observe that the harm it does by interfering with 

 the nests of the insectivorous Martin and devouring 

 grain is to a great extent cotinterbalanced by its 

 destruction of insects and their larvae. South of the 

 Arctic Circle the Sparrow is said to range to Spain and 

 Austria and also to Irkutsk and Dauria in Asia, but it 

 is only found near the dwellings of man, and is repre- 

 sented in parts of south Europe by the possibly distinct 

 Italian and Spanish Sparrows. 



A second resident species, the Tree Sparrow (P. mon- 

 tanus), needs careful observation to distinguish it from 

 the last-named, as, roughly speaking, it occupies the 

 same localities both at home and abroad, though it is 

 curiously local, while it extends to the Mediterranean, 

 Siberia, China, Japan, and possibly northern Africa. 

 The crown and nape are rich brown, the white cheek 

 shews a black patch, and the wing two white bars, 

 while in the cock Sparrow the crown is grey, there is 

 no cheek patch, and the wing has only one bar. More- 

 over the sexes are alike in the Tree Sparrow, whereas 

 everyone is familiar with the dowdy brown hen of the 

 other species. In both the cocks have black throats. 

 Again the large untidy nest of the House Sparrow is 

 placed in spouts, gutters, holes in masonry, banks or 

 trees, and also in hawthorns or the like in the open; 

 that of the Tree Sparrow is invariably in a hole, whether 



