FOR CAGES AND AVIARIES. 113 



THE HEDGE ACCENTOR. See Hedge Sparrow. 



THE HEDGE SPARROW, OR DUNNOCK. 



This bird, commonly but erroneously named Hedge 

 Sparrow, is really the Hedge Accentor. It is soft-billed 

 and has no connection whatever with our familiar friend 

 the House Sparrow, except that it is a permanent resident 

 in Britain. Its length is 5^ inches, 2\ inches of which are 

 occupied by the tail. Its general colour is brown, and as 

 every feather on the upper surface of the body has a dark 

 centre, the back and wings have a mottled appearance ; 

 the throat and breast are slate grey, but the belly is lighter. 



The female is altogether lighter in her colouring as 

 well as somewhat smaller than her mate. 



Few people care to keep a bird that has neither beauty 

 of plumage nor agreeable song to recommend it, but 

 notwithstanding these drawbacks Accentors make desirable 

 inmates of the aviary, where they nest and lay freely, 

 if they do not always rear their young. 



Bechstein says that the female may be paired with the 

 Redbreast, and that such unions usually succeed very well : 

 if he meant as regards the production of hybrids, that is 

 extremely doubtful. 



The nest is strongly and compactly built of moss, lined 

 with hair, and is usually well concealed in a low bush, 

 box and privet being often selected. The eggs are four 

 or five in number, and are of the richest turquoise-blue 

 imaginable. The young can be easily reared on bread 

 and milk and ants' eggs, but individuals taken when full 

 grown quickly reconcile themselves to the loss of their 

 freedom and become very tame. 



Bechstein makes the startling announcement that the 

 Accentor is subject to a complaint resembling small-pox, 

 but this, like the Robin hybrids, is more than doubtful; 

 they are, however, Hable to a kind of leprosy or skin 

 disease, that begins at the root of the bill and extends 

 over the whole of the head and neck, where the feathers 

 fall out and are replaced by an unsightly scaly scurf, that 



