FINCHES. 
393 
Tree-Sparrow. 
with white, which most affects the quill-feathers. The adult cock in summer has 
the plumage of the upper-parts chestnut, streaked with black on the mantle and 
back; the primaries being blackish, edged with pale rufous; the median coverts 
black, tipped with white, forming a wing-bar; the tail-feathers dusky brown; the 
crown of the head and nape ashy grey; a broad streak of chestnut extending 
downwards from the upper-parts of the eye; the cheeks ashy white; the throat and 
fore-neck black; the sides of the breast brownish ash; and the under-parts white. 
The female is a dull brown bird, lacking the black gorget of the other sex. 
The haunts of the tree-sparrow (P. montanus ) are more remote 
from human dwellings than are those of its congener the house- 
sparrow. Sometimes, it is true, a pair or two of tree-sparrows may take up their 
abode in some old wall beside a cottage or farmhouse; but trees are their favourite 
resorts. Not unfrequently the tree-sparrows build under old nests of rooks; the 
nest being not so bulky or untidy as that of the house-sparrow. The eggs are 
bluish white in ground-colour, blotched and spotted or suffused with hair-brown. 
Sometimes tree-sparrows nest in the crevices of a chalk cliff; and a colony has 
been found established under the iron girder of a railway bridge. The movements 
of the tree-sparrow are more graceful than those of the common bird, from which it 
can also be distinguished by its more musical and shriller chirp; while, unlike the 
house-sparrow, the tree-sparrow possesses a short but pleasing song. Far more shy 
than the house-sparrow, the tree-sparrow, instead of courting observation, shuns 
publicity; and its flight is more rapid than that of its cousin. On one or two 
occasions we have seen the two species consorting together; and we have observed 
the tree-sparrows flying with flocks of greenfinches during the autumn migration. 
The majority of those we have seen in confinement seemed too wild to give their 
confidence readily to any human being; but a male of this species, caught in the 
month of February, lost its dread of man in a very few weeks, and sang freely in 
a cage. Although, as already said, the house-sparrow is so subject to variations of 
plumage, we never yet met with a white or pied specimen of the tree-sparrow. 
The adult is fawn-coloured above, the feathers of the mantle having ashy edgings 
and broad black streaks; while the lesser wing-coverts are uniform chestnut; the 
medium wing-coverts black, with broad white tips forming a wing-bar; the chin 
black; the cheeks white, spotted with black; and the under-parts ashy. 
The Spanish sparrow (P. hispaniolensis) replaces the English 
bird in many parts of the Mediterranean region, including Sardinia, 
Corsica, Sicily, and Malta, nesting in the walls of houses and the crevices of 
rocks. It is abundant in Algeria, especially amongst the reeds in the salt-marshes; 
and Mr. O. Salvin gives the following notes upon its habits in the Atlas, observing 
that it “ is found in great numbers during the breeding-season among the tamarisk 
thickets on the Chemoria and in the high sedge at Zana. The Arabs destroy the 
eggs, nest, and young wherever they find them, as their great numbers do much 
damage to the crops of corn. The nests are placed as thickly as they can stand, 
the whole colony, consisting of perhaps one hundred pairs, occupying only five or 
six trees. The noise and ceaseless chattering proceeding from one of these 
sparrow-towns can easily be imagined; and, guided by the sound alone, one may 
walk directly to the spot for a considerable distance. One Sunday morning four 
Spanish Sparrow. 
