THE HEDGE SPARROW 



Sub-Family ACCENTORIN^ 

 THE HEDGE SPARROW 



ACCENTOR MODULARIS 



Crown of the head ash colour with brown streaks ; sides of the neck, throat, 

 and breast, bluish grey , bill strong and broad at base ; wing-coverts 

 and feathers on the back reddish brown, with a tawny spot in the centre ; 

 middle wing-coverts tipped with yellowish white ; lower tail-coverts 

 brown, with a whitish border ; middle of abdomen white. Eength five and 

 a half inches. Eggs greenish blue, without spots. 



Inveterate custom has so attached the name of Hedge Sparrow 

 to this bird, that in spite of all the efforts of ornithologists to con- 

 vince the world that it is no sparrow at all (a hard-beaked, grain- 

 eating bird), but a true warbler, it is still more frequently called by 

 its popular name than by any of those that have been suggested. 

 The gentle, innocent, confiding, little brown bird, which creeps 

 like a mouse through our garden flower-beds, picks up a meagre 

 fare in our roads and lanes, builds its nest in our thorn hedges, and 

 though dingy itself, lays such brilliant blue eggs, has been known 

 to us from our infancy as a ' Hedge Sparrow ', and we decline 

 any innovation : the name is a time-honoured one, and no one 

 will mistake us. Hedge Accentor, Hedge Warbler, and Shuffle- 

 wing, are names open to those who prefer them, but we adhere 

 to the old-fashioned designation of Hedge Sparrow. This bird 

 is a genuine Warbler, and one of the few belonging to the 

 tribe who remain with us aU the winter ; we should suppose, 

 indeed, that he never wandered far from the place of his birth. 

 At all seasons his habits and food appear to be the same. All 

 day long he is shuffling about on the ground picking up minute 

 atoms, whether seeds or insects, who knows ? Every day, nearly 

 all the year round, he repairs at intervals to the nearest hedge, 

 where he sings a song, soft and gentle like himself ; and every even- 

 ing, when the Blackbird rings his curfew bell, he fails not to respond 

 with his drowsy cheep, cheep, as he repairs to the bush he has 

 selected for his night's rest, ^^ery early in spring, before his brother 

 warblers have arrived from the south, he has chosen his mate, 

 built his snug nest, and too probably commenced a second ; for 

 unsuspicious in nature, he does not retire to solitary places for this 

 purpose, and the leafless hedges but ill conceal his labours from the 

 peering eyes of all-destroying ploughboys. Such are nearly all his 

 " short and simple annals". He quarrels with no one, he achieves 

 no distinction, throwing no one into ecstasies with his song, and steal- 

 ing no one's fruit ; unobtrusive and innocent, he claims no notice, 

 and dreads no resentment ; and so, through all the even tenor of 

 his way, he is, without knowing it, the favourite of children, and 

 of all the good and gentle. 



