EING-OUZEL — REDBREAST. 53 



stage of plumage might easily be overlooked from their 

 resemblance to Blackbirds. A young male in this dress, 

 which came into my possession in the flesh, was shot at Hook 

 Norton on the 22nd November, 1887, which is a late date for 

 it to remain with us. Others have been obtained in autumn 

 in the neighbourhood of Banbury, on the i8th October, 1876 

 (C. M. Prior), and m 1878. 



THE HEDGE SPARROW. (1 .^ 



Accentor moclularis. 

 The Hedge Sparrow is a common and familiar resident, 

 breeding early in the year in a great variety of exposed 

 positions, so that its blue-green eggs often fall a sj)oil to the 

 birds^'-nesting boys, by whom it is invariably known as the 

 ' Billy.' It is a hardy little bird, and its cheery song may be 

 heard on almost any fine day in winter. 



THE REDBREAST. ' '^■ 



Erithacus ruhecula. 

 The Redbreast, or Robin, is resident as a species, but at the 

 same time it is partially migratory, some of the birds which 

 are bred here moving southward in autumn, their places being 

 taken by others from further north. Sjieaking of this in- 

 ternal migration, Mr. W. W. Fowler writes, ^At Parsons' 

 Pleasure I have seen the bushes literally alive with them in 

 October and November, in a state of extreme liveliness and 

 pugnacity.' (A Tear tcit/i the Birds, p. 6.) For all its readiness 

 to avail itself of human assistance the Robin is a hardy bird ; 

 a familiar resident for the most part in the neighbourhood of 

 dwellings, it often takes up its winter quarters in the fields, 

 where, protected by its thick fluffy plumage, it braves out the 

 most rigorous seasons, picking up a precarious sustinence 

 among the thick dead herbage in overgrown hedge bottoms 

 and the corners of plantations. It would seem curious that 

 the Robin does not increase more, since it enjoys a singular 



