HEDGE ACCENTOR. 225 



In a nest thus easily found the Cuckoo is apt to deposit 

 her egg, and Mr. Slaney says more Cuckoos are fostered by 

 the Hedge Warbler than by any other bird. 



The effffs of the Hedo^e Warbler are four or five in num- 

 ber, sometimes, though rarely, six, of a delicate and spotless 

 bluish green colour ; nine lines and a half in length, by six 

 lines and a half in breadth. According to Mr. Jenyns, the 

 first brood of young birds is hatched in April, and a second 

 brood is reared in the season. 



The Hedge Warbler goes as far north in summer as Swe- 

 den ; but, according to M. Nilsson, most of them leave that 

 country before winter. It inhabits all the temperate parts of 

 Europe, but goes southward in autumn ; it is even said to 

 leave Genoa in October, but to be found in every hedge 

 about Rome and the southern parts of Italy in winter. Mr. 

 Strickland obtained this bird at Smyrna in December ; but it 

 was considered rare in that locality. 



The beak is dark brown, but lighter in colour at the base ; 

 irides hazel ; head, nape, and sides of the neck, bluish grey, 

 streaked with brown, except behind and below the ear- 

 coverts, where the grey colour is unmixed with brown ; back 

 and wings reddish brown, streaked with dark brown ; upper 

 tail-coverts plain hair-brown ; Aving-primaries and tail-fea- 

 thers dusky brown ; tertials margined with reddish brown ; 

 chin, throat, and chest, grey ; breast and belly buflry white ; 

 sides and flanks pale brown, streaked with dark brown ; 

 under surface of wings and tail-feathers greyish brown ; the tail 

 slightly forked : legs and toes orange brown ; claws black ; 

 the hind claw as large again as either of the other three. 



The whole length of the bird rather more than five inches 

 and a half. From the carpal joint to the end of the longest 

 feather in the wing, two inches and three-quarters : the first 

 wing-feather very small ; the second a little longer than the 

 seventh, but shorter than the sixth ; the third, fourth, and 



VOL. I. Q 



