8o 



British Birds. 



neck, both vf which are very conspicuous as the bird sits on the top of a furze bush 

 or low hedge. The tail, when spread in flight, does not show the amount of white 

 which is so evident in the Whinchat. Although found in most parts of Great 

 Britain in summer, the Stonechat is everywhere a local bird, and a few remain 

 with us during the winter, but the greater number migrate. It is a local bird 

 throughout Europe, as it is in Great Britain, and it does not extend nearly so far 

 north as the Whinchat, while its eastern range is bounded by the Ural Mountains, or 

 perhaps a little further to the eastward, its place being taken in Siberia by a different 

 species, Prntincola iiianra. Our Stonechat is a much more plentiful species in 

 Southern Europe than it is in the more northern parts of the continent, and breeds 

 throughout the Mediterranean countries, wintering in North-east Africa and 

 Senegambia. 



The species is very similar in its habits to the foregoing species, but frequents 

 the more open country. Its nest is quite as hard to find, and as equally well 

 concealed. The eggs are pale bluish-green, but the reddish-brown spots are larger 

 and more distinct than those of the Winchat, and the spots generally form a zone 

 round the larger end of the egg. 



Excepting in the extreme north of Scotland and the 

 Orkneys, Shetlands, and the Hebrides, the Hedge- Sparrow is 

 universally distributed throughout the British Islands, and 

 is almost as familiar a pensioner in our gardens as the Robin. 

 Its lively little song is heard throughout the spring and 



summer, and it is one of the first birds to commence to sing when winter is barely 



over. The nest is a beautiful structure, composed principally of moss, and the eggs 



are of a clear greenish-blue, with no spots of any kind. Although the Accentors 



have spotted young, they difi'er from the rest of the Thrushes in having scales on 



the tarsus, and in their general aspect they are much more like Robins. The}' are 



to a great extent migratory, but have a much more rounded wing than the majority 



of the Tiirdiclii, to which family 



they really belong, and the rounded 



wing mereh' shews that they are 



less migratory than their relatives 



with pointed wings. Nevertheless 



numbers of our Hedge- Sparrows 



leave us in the autumn and cross 



the channel. A\'ith the exception 



of Southern Europe, where the 



speciesonly nests in the mountains, 



the Hedge- Sparrow is generally 



distributed during the breeding 



season throughout Europe as far 



THE 



HEDGH-SPAKROW. 



(Thayi'ltnh-Hs 



}iioihilai-is.) 



The Hebge-Sparrow. 



