478 



PERCHING BIRDS 



They are to a great extent ground-dwelling birds, laying unspotted 

 blue eggs. In the more typical Asiatic representatives of the group 

 the wings are long and pointed, whereas in the hedge-sparrow and its 

 immediate relatives they are shorter and more rounded ; the former, 

 too, are almost exclusively mountain-birds. 



Although possessing no very striking features, the hedge-sparrow, 

 which measures 5^ inches in length, may be easily recognised by the 

 following description, if indeed there are any persons who are not 

 already fully acquainted with the species. The head, neck, and fore 

 part of the neck are dark slaty grey, this colour being, however, 



obscured on the 

 crown and nape by 

 large dark brown 

 spots ; dark brown, 

 with blotches of a 

 still deeper shade of 

 the same, is the pre- 

 vailing colour of the 

 back, but the lower 

 part of the latter, 

 together with the tail, 

 is uniformly dark 

 brown ; the wing- 

 coverts are dusky 

 with broad wood- 

 brown edges ; the 

 abdomen is greyish 

 white ; and the sides and flanks are pale reddish brown with darker 

 streaks. Hens are smaller and duller, with more spotting on the head 

 and back ; and young birds are still more spotted, and show no grey 

 on the head and neck. 



So far as its breeding-range is concerned, the hedge-sparrow is an 

 exclusively European bird, its eastern limit being formed b\' the Urals. 

 Throughout the greater part of Europe it breeds everywhere ; but it is 

 a somewhat delicate species, and in Scandinavia does not nest to the 

 northward of latitude 70 , while in Russia its limit is some ten degrees 

 less. For the same reason hedge-sparrows do not build in Orkne\-, 

 Shetland, and some of the islands of the Hebrides group, although 

 they visit them all in winter. Neither does this somewhat fastidious 

 bird nest where the climate is very hot, and in the south of luirope it 

 consequcntl}^ breeds only in the mountains, thus reverting to the habits 



RO STUDIOS 



HEDGE-SPAKKOW. 



