78 BIRDS OF DUMFRIESSHIRE 
of Higher Education, used to sing, may perhaps be given to 
save it from obUvion : 
" I'll tell ve a story about Johnnie Murray, 
He went to the woods and killed a sparry ; 
I'll tell ye anither about his brither, 
He went to the woods and killed anither. 
[THE TREE-SPARROW. Passer montanus (Linnseua). 
Sir WiUiam Jardme wrote of the Tree-Sparrow iii 1839 : 
" We have no note of its occurrence m Scotland , 
and though since those days this species has been found 
nesting in this country, I have not yet received sufficient 
evidence to enable me to include it in this avifauna of 
Dumfriesshire without square brackets. 
A specimen from the collection of Rev W. Little, most 
of whose birds were obtained m his parish of K^kpatnck- 
Juxta, is without a label, so I am informed by Mr. R. 
sLic'e, its present owner. Mr. William Wright of Annan 
wrote to me in 1908 : " I am pretty certain of tl^e Tree 
Sparrow, but here again I can give no further proof than 
that I have come across what appeared to me to be this 
bird nesting in a thatched house, now demolished. 1 
have not the date exactly, but to the best of my memo^ 
it will be twenty years ago. They certainly departed from 
the place when the thatch was removed." A rumour that 
this species was common in Ruthwell was f P'o^^^ ^y 
Mr J Harkness, who wrote to me that a few he had 
shot for the purpose of identification, proved to be House- 
^^S^Tree-Sparrow is recorded from the neighbouring 
area« of "Clyde" and "Tweed" as -1^° ^J^'^f^^" 
land ; so that it might occur m our county at any time, 
especially as it seems to be extending its range. It is even 
possible that from its similarity to the preceding species 
it may already have been overlooked.] 
* Nat. Lib., 1839, Vol. XI., p. 297. 
