Name for two distinct birds. a. Passer montanus, a species of sparrow, widely distributed in Europe and Asia, and found locally in Britain. b. Spizella monticola, a bird (not of the sparrow family) common in N. America.
1770. Pennant, Zool., IV. 17. Tree Sparrow. Mountain Sparrow. Common near Lincoln,… conversant among trees, but does not frequent houses.
1831. A. Wilson, Amer. Ornithol., II. 252. Fringilla Arborea. Tree sparrow. The tree sparrow is six inches and a half long, and nine and a half in extent.
1889. Science-Gossip (U.S.), XXV. 145. As I neared a clump of cedars … a host of tree sparrows fluttered about me…. These lively birds come to us from Canada in October and stay until April.
1897. Times, 5 Jan., 5/4. The tree sparrow … is, in these islands, an exceedingly local … bird.
