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NOTES ON THE TREE-SPARROW IN DONEGAL. 

 By the Rev. J. M. McWilliam. 



In the 'Irish Naturalist,' August, 1907, Mr. Robert Patterson 

 published an account of a small colony of Tree-Sparrows found 

 by me that summer in the south of Co. Donegal. I only had 

 these birds under observation for a couple of weeks, and had not 

 the opportunity of going back to the district in the nest season 

 till last June, nor could I get any information as to the con- 

 tinued existence of the colony during the interval of eight 

 years. 



In 1907 I found four nests in all, which I believe represented 

 two or three pairs of birds. The nests were quite close to one 

 another, as is shown in the accompanying diagram, and I could 

 find no Tree- Sparrows anywhere else in the neighbourhood, 

 though I was constantly in suitable places for a few miles on 

 each side. 



There was one remarkable fact in connection with this 

 colony, to which I shall refer again later. In order to leave no 

 room for doubt about the identification of the birds, I took 

 a pair of Tree- Sparrows with their young, and I subsequently 

 heard from Messrs. Williams, of Dame Street, Dublin, that on 

 examination both of the old birds were found to be males. 

 It was as certain as it could be that both of these males were 

 partners in the same nest (1) (see diagram). I had them under 

 observation immediately beside the nest for some time before 

 I reluctantly shot them. At the same time there was a female 

 sitting on another nest not very far away (2), and I believe that 

 she was the female belonging to this brood. There were no other 

 Tree-Sparrows in the immediate neighbourhood, and I never 

 saw more than two Sparrows feeding the young in the first nest. 

 I assume that the limited number of birds in the colony led to 

 this unusual incident, and that the female left the first brood to 

 lay again in another nest. At least this suggested itself to me 



Zool. 4th ser. vol. XIX., August, 1915. 2 a 



