BIRDS. 
127 
[" It has been traced . . . thence to Caithness " (Gray, Birds, 
West of Scotland, p. 144), apparently quoting Mr. Wilson's 
authority as having included it in the list of birds seen by 
liim in the collection of Dr. Sinclair, but if it occurred, 
it can only be admitted as a very uncommon straggler 
til ere.] 
Passer domesticus {L.). House-Sparrow. 
Resident, abundant along the east coast ; local further inland. 
At Gordonbush, Strath Brora, we never remember to have 
seen a sparrow; but at Balnacoil in 1879 — and that year 
only — a pair bred there. Has once occurred at Badeuloch. 
In the west appeared at Inchnadamph for the first time in 
1882, when a pair arrived in spring after a gale of wind, 
and remained and bred, and they again were present in 
1884. Commoji at Altnaharrow. Present, but not abun- 
dant, at Durness, also at Scourie, and again at Tongue, 
Syre(S. G. Eeid's Journal, 1886), and elsewhere. In 1882 
Mr. J. C. M. Wallis remarks, " House-sparrow only at Lairg 
and Inchnadamph " — i.e. among the places he visited — and 
at Scourie. 
Abundant, and widely spread throughout the county of Caith- 
ness (0. MSS., 1868), and the same remark applies in 
1885, both in the towns and country homesteads, though 
not penetrating to far outlying habitations, such as light- 
houses, where the food-supply is not so considerable. The 
distribution of this species seems to be almost entirely 
dependent upon the areas under cultivation ; whereas the 
peculiar sporadic occurrence of the next-named species 
seems to indicate that simpler fare is suitable for them. 
Note. — In Cambridgeshire, where both species are com- 
mon, each species distinctly deserves its specific English 
name — " House " and " Tree " ; but in the Highlands of 
Scotland, where the house-sparrow is absent, there the 
tree-sparrow is more deserving of its Latin specific name 
