BIRDS OF THE HOMESTEAD 45 



feathered tribes. Although so many Hedge-spar- 

 rows are with us in summer and winter aUke, and 

 may be seen at any season moving unobtrusively 

 in lowly places about the homestead, with that 

 slight characteristic shuffle of wing from which one 

 of their many local names is derived, they are none 

 the less migrants, and in September and October 

 vast numbers arrive on the East Coast annually, 

 especially on the shores of Yorkshire and of 

 Lincolnshire. 



The plumage of the Hedge-sparrow is of the 

 soberest hue. Even in the nuptial season, when all 

 Nature arrays herself in her best, the male Hedge- 

 sparrow merely adds a touch of blue and silver to 

 his grey side-plumes; so faint, indeed, that it is 

 only on the closest inspection that they may be 

 observed at all. 



The Hedge-sparrow is one of the earliest birds to 

 build. Its nest is placed in a still leafless hedge, 

 or in the recesses of a stick-heap in some neglected 

 corner of the cottage garden. It is one of the de- 

 lights of early spring to peer through the interstices 

 of the black, lifeless boughs, and to see, gleaming 

 below, the clear, delicate blue, unmarred by spot 

 or stain, of the eggs which the little Hedge-sparrow 

 has laid undeterred by its wintry surroundings. 



In habit, as well as in plumage, the Hedge-spar- 

 row is one of the least obtrusive of birds. Al- 

 though, unlike the Sedge Warbler or the Wood 

 Wren, it never avoids the presence of man, nor 

 shrinks hastily into the thicket, or the recesses of 

 the wood, at his approach, it is none the less reluct- 

 ant to court observation. It sidles modestly about 



