72 
TREE SPARROW. 
of this untidiness, the larger straws being left hanging 
carelessly outside, is, that the situation of the nest is betrayed 
to the prowling bird-nester. The same situation is often again 
occupied from year to year. 
The eggs, from four to six in number, are of a dull white, 
speckled all over with light greyish brown of different shades. 
This bird does not vary much in plumage at different 
seasons of the year, an additional brilliancy in spring being 
the main feature. Male; weight, about six drachms; length, 
about five inches and a half, or from that to three quarters; 
bill, bluish black and polished in the spring and summer; in 
the winter black at the tip only, and yellowish towards the 
base. Iris, dark brown; in front of the eye, between it and 
the bill, and running through it is a black mark, and underneath 
a narrow black streak; there is also a large black patch on 
the side of the head. Head on the crown, chesnut of an 
opaque shade. Neck on the sides, white, with a triangular¬ 
shaped spot of pure black, on the back it is chesnut, spotted 
with black on its lower part, the inner webs of the feathers 
being of that colour; nape, chesnut, interrupted by an 
incomplete band of white; chin and throat, black. Breast, 
greyish white, tinged on the sides with yellowish brown. 
Back on the upper part, chesnut with b]ack spots or streaks, 
the inner webs of the feathers being of that latter colour, 
and the outer of the former in nearly equal proportion; on 
the lower part it is yellowish brown. 
The wings extend to within an inch and a half of the end of 
the tail; greater wing coverts, deep blackish brown, edged with 
chesnut, white at the end; lesser wing coverts, deep blackish 
brown edged with chesnut, and some of them white at the 
end, so that there are thus made two bands of white across 
the wing; primaries, brownish black, edged on the outside 
webs with pale yellowish brown, broadening where the web 
widens, and extending to the shaft at the base, and on the 
inner ones more broadly with chesnut brown. The first quill 
feather is the same length as the fifth, the second, third, 
and fourth nearly equal in length, and the longest in the 
wing, but the second rather the longest of the three; the 
secondaries also brownish black, margined in the same way 
but more widely; tertiaries, brownish black, still more widely 
edged with chesnut brown. Greater and lesser under wing 
coverts, pale lawn-colour. The tail is very little forked, the 
feathers being of nearly equal length; they are greyish 
