HEDGE CHANTER. 255 



trees. In fine weather they sing even in winter, nor is there 

 any season of the year at which they are entirely mute ; but 

 from the middle of spring to the end of May especially, they 

 are heard chanting their short, clear, pleasantly modulated, 

 but not remarkably mellow song, generally when perched on 

 a twig, but sometimes on the ground, or a wall. During the 

 breeding season, the shake of their wings increases to a shuffle 

 or kind of flutter, which they execute at short intervals ; and 

 this habit can hardly fail to be observed by the most incurious. 

 Their ordinary cry is a slight cheep. They are not by any 

 means quarrelsome, either among themselves, or with other 

 small birds, and they seem to pair in the quietest possible 

 manner. 



In dry sunny weather in summer I have watched them 

 basking on the road near a hedge. They would stand quite 

 motionless, their legs much bent, their tail touching the ground, 

 their wings spread a little, and their plumage all ruffled ; and 

 thus they remain a long time, seeming to enjoy the heat ex- 

 ceedingly, and suffering a person to approach very near them, 

 before they fly oif. At all seasons, but especially in winter, I 

 have found their stomach to contain small seeds of various 

 kinds, and frequently those of grasses ; but they also feed on 

 insects, pupae, and larvae. They use a great quantity of mi- 

 nute fragments of quartz and other hard minerals, which are 

 seldom met with in the gizzards of the Sylviae ; so that with 

 respect to feeding they resemble the Larks and Thrushes. 



They nestle from the middle of March to the beginning of 

 May, choosing very frequently a hedge, or a holly bush, but 

 often contenting themselves with any low and moderately thick 

 shrub ; and as the nest is often completed before the leaves 

 have made much progress, it is very liable to be destroyed by 

 boys. It is bulky, from four and a half to five inches in 

 diameter externally, its interior two inches and a quarter 

 across, and nearly two inches deep. One before me is com- 

 posed externally of a few hawthorn twigs, a great quantity of 

 dry grass, and then a thick layer of moss. The lining is a 

 quarter of an inch thick, and composed of hair of different 

 kinds, with a considerable quantity of wool. Another is lined 



