Thk Hedge-Sparrow. 131 



hedge, but I have taken it from the branches of sapling trees in thickets, from 

 furze-bushes, evergreens, brambles, faggot-stacks, ivy growing on a wall, and from 

 a tuft of grass on the ground, where it exhibited a curious appearance, as the dead 

 grass-stalks forming the upper part of the framework were so arranged as to form 

 an irregular pentagon ; although this nest only contained one egg I could not 

 resist securing it as a curiosity. In 1887, Mr. A. E. Shaw recorded the discovery 

 of a nest of this bird built in a cabbage, and Mr. Gray, in his " Birds of the 

 West of Scotland," mentions a nest placed at the base of a hart's-tongue fern on 

 a ledge in a cave at Ailsa Craig. 



The eggs of the Hedge-Sparrow are so conspicuous that every rustic and 

 schoolboy is perfectly familiar with them ; they vary in number from four to six, 

 but five is a number rarely exceeded ; in colour they are of a beautiful turquoise 

 blue and unspotted ; in form usually a very perfect oval ; they do, however, vary 

 very considerably in form, although the extreme variations of a very long pear- 

 shape and an almost perfect sphere are not often met with ; nevertheless, by 

 diligent search, I have taken both types, which are figured on pi. VIII. of ray 

 " Handbook of British Oology," and again in the present work. 



It is well-known that the nest of the Hedge-Sparrow is one of the Cuckoo's 

 favourites ; this is curious, because the egg of this parasitical bird is, as a rule, 

 utterly unlike that of the Accciifor ; Mr. Seebohm's fine series of Cuckoo's eggs 

 nevertheless contains a variety resembling those of the Hedge-Sparrow, excepting 

 in its superior size. 



Seeing that Accetitor modularis did not object to incubating an egg so utterly 

 unlike its own, I once tried the experiment of putting two Whitethroat's eggs 

 into a nest in a hawthorn hedge which closed the end of my last garden. It was 

 no good, the alien eggs were simply thrown over the side and the nest deserted, 

 proving clearly that the Hedge-Sparrow is not colour-blind : it will submit to the 

 deposit system of the Cuckoo, but will not have anything to do with loans from 

 other species. 



Frequently commencing to breed in March, it is not to be wondered at that 

 this bird should frequently produce three broods in the year ; the abundance of 

 the species is therefore easy to understand, although its absolute hardiness and 

 the ease with which it accommodates itself to change of diet may have something 

 to do with it. Its natural food consists largely of insects, spiders, worms, and 

 seeds of weeds ; but, in confinement, like its cousin the Pekin Nightingale, it may 

 gradiially be accustomed to live upon a seed diet alone. 



Mr. Stevenson, in his "Birds of Norfolk," says:— "With myself the Hedge- 

 Sparrow has been always an especial favourite, from its gentle unobtrusive nature, 



K2 



