70 THE S2IALLEn BRITISH BIRDS. 



and fed by Hodge Sparrows than by any otlier kind of birds, and that 

 thoy are among tbe earliest of builders, the nest being generally finished 

 earljr in March; a month before the male may be heard singing his short 

 and plaintive song which has httle variety in it, but it is very sweet in 

 tune; it is continued with but little intermission, throughout the greater 

 part of the year. When silent in autumn, the birds are undergoing their 

 annual moult; then it is that many of their old feathers are shed, and 

 new ones begin to grow. If you see a Dunnock flitting about the hedge 

 or the copse, you may be pretty sure its mate is not far oiF, for these 

 birds mostly go in pairs, even although it may not be in the breeding- 

 season. But how are you to know it is a Dunnock? Well, it is a bird 

 rather more than five inches and a half long, with a pretty full plump 

 body, and a longish tail; it has a shortish, pointed, dark brown beak, 

 lio-hter in colour at the base; the head, nape, and sides of the neck, are 

 grey, striped with brown everywhere except behind and below the ear 

 coverts, where the grey is nearly pure; the back and wings are reddish 

 brown, with darker streaks; the wings and tail are also brown of various 

 shades; and the chin, throat, and chest, grey; the sides are pale brown, 

 streaked with dark brown; the lower part of the breast, and body, are 

 white, with a reddish brown tinge; and the legs and toes are orange 

 brown, with black claws, the hinder one of which is as long again as 

 the other three. There you have Master Shufilewing drawn from life, 

 as he is in the picture. 



All over England, you will find him, as much in the north as in the 

 south, for he seems to care very little about the cold. And all through 

 the year you will find him, for he does not fly away from us at the 

 approach of winter, as many sweet songsters do; frequenting hedgerows, 

 pastures, gardens, and cultivated fields, where he finds his natural food, 

 insects, and seeds; he is no fruit eater, and therefore not so much at 

 enmity with the gardener as some birds are. And all through Europe 

 you will find him, from Italy on the south, to Sweden in the north; 

 he has been taken in Smyrna, in December, but is a rare bird there. 

 A celebrated American ornithologist characterises this as a beautiful 

 httle bird; and Macgillivray speaks of it as "familiar, gentle, and 

 modest." White, buff, and cieam-coloured varieties of this bird have 

 been met with, and some with mottled plumage, consisting of a mi.Kture 

 of two or more of these colouis. 



