348 
BIRDS OF BRITISH BURMAH. 
329. PASSER MONTANUS. 
THE EUROPEAN TREE-SPARROW. 
Fringilla montana, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 324 ; Jerd. B. Ind. ii. p. 366 ; Hume, Nests 
and Eggs, p. 460; Bl. B. Burm. p. 94; Dresser, Birds Eur. iii. p. 597, pi.; 
Scully, S. F. iv. p. 165 ; Hume, S. F. iv. p. 499 ; Bav. et Oust. Ois. Chine, p. 340 ; 
Hume 8f Dav. 8. F. vi. p. 407 ; Anders, Yunnan Exped. p. 601 ; Hume, S. F. viii. 
p. 107 ; Scully, S. F. viii. p. 334. 
Description. — Male and female. The whole head from forehead to nape 
vinous chestnut ; lores^ feathers under the eye and a patch under the ear- 
coverts and encroaching upon them hlack ; with this exception the sides 
of the face and neck are white ; chin and throat black ; lower plumage 
ashy^ whitish on the abdomen and tinged with fulvous on the sides of the 
breast^ flanks and under tail-coverts j back and scapulars pale chestnut^ 
with the inner webs of the feathers chiefly black ; rump and upper tail- 
coverts yellowish brown ; tail brown^ edged with fulvous ; lesser wing- 
coverts chestnut ; median coverts blacky broadly tipped with white ; greater 
coverts blackish, edged with pale chestnut and tipped with whitish ; quills 
dark brown edged with rufous. 
Bill black ; iris brown ; legs flesh-colour ; claws brown. 
Length 5*6 inches, tail 2*8, wing 2*7, tarsus '7, bill from gape '55. The 
female is of about the same size as the male. 
The European Tree-Sparrow is abundant over the whole of British 
Burmah, and is the Common House- Sparrow of the country. 
It has a very wide range ; it inhabits the Malay peninsula, Java, Cochin 
China, Siam, the whole of China and Japan, the Himalayas, Central Asia 
and Siberia, in which latter country Mr. Seebohm observed it as far north 
as Yen-e-saisk'. Westwards it ranges into Europe, where it is found over 
the whole continent, and it also occurs in North Africa. 
This Sparrow, the most abundant species in Burmah, is found almost 
exclusively confined to towns, villages and buildings. It outnumbers 
P. indicus in most parts of Burmah ; but the two birds are generally found 
together. In its mode of nidification and habits it resembles the preceding 
species. 
