TREE OR MOUNTAIN SPARROW. 77 



nearest approach to familiarity it ever exhibits is, that when 

 pressed by hunger during severe weather, it approaches 

 villages, where a supply of food can be more readily obtained. 



In England the Tree Sparrow is so little known generally, 

 that it is still supposed to be limited to certain favorable lo- 

 calities. Probably if better known it would be recognised as 

 inhabiting many other spots where the requisites of pasture 

 and old woods are present. They were observed by Montagu 

 near the village of Wainfleet : at Aldwinkle, in Northamp- 

 tonshire they have been seen by Mr. Doubleday : and in 

 parts of the county of Durham by Selby : they have also been 

 met with in the counties of Cambridge, Lincoln, York, and 

 Lancaster, &c. : at Main-wood, near Elgin ; at Tilford in 

 Surrey, &c. We have ourselves seen them in Surrey, and 

 had living birds procured for us there ; and have also in our 

 possession eggs, apparently of the Tree Sparrow, taken from a 

 reed fence in that county. 



Some few instances have been mentioned by different 

 writers on ornithology of Tree Sparrows building in barns, and 

 even under the roofs of houses, in a manner similar to the 

 common sparrow, but these may be considered rather as de- 

 viations from their general manners : we must still consider 

 the common sparrow as the denizen of the town and the Tree 

 Sparrow of the country, although each may be found oc- 

 casionally on the outskirts of its respective sphere ; the house 

 sparrow making its summer residence among the trees, and 

 the other species occasionally resorting to houses. 



The food of the Tree Sparrow consists of many sorts of in- 

 sects and seeds, also the fresh shoots of weeds and vegetables. 

 From the nature of the food they seek it may be inferred that 

 they are less destructive than the common species, and ob- 

 servations made on the subject seem to confirm the fact. 

 Mr. Lewcock, of Farnham, says, speaking of the food of this 

 species, " On examining the craws of about twenty individuals 



