68 RURAL BIRD LIFE. 



Hedge Accentor are almost unique in beauty too, their 

 clear and spotless blue defying the painter's every art to 

 produce, and contrasting richly with the sober colours of 

 the nest. They are from four to six in number, and vary 

 little in size. The Hedge Accentor is another of those 

 birds who continue laying if you remove the eggs from 

 time to time, even depositing them on what little 

 materials chance to remain after removing the nest. 

 This bird will rear as many as three broods in the year. 

 I have found their unfinished nests late in July, and seen 

 the eggs in April. The Hedge Accentor will hatch the 

 eggs of other birds and tend the young with as much 

 care and attention as her own. It is the nest of the 

 Hedge Accentor that the Cuckoo so frequently uses as 

 the receptacle for her ^'g^, and the old Hedge Accentors 

 prove careful and attentive parents. Mimicry in part 

 forms the protective power of the Hedge Accentor ; the 

 sitting bird will also display a silent protective power, 

 and remain brooding over the eggs or callow young 

 until absolutely compelled to quit them. 



There is not a more harmless bird tenants the woods 

 and fields than this active little creature, yet I fear its 

 harmlessness is not its shield. Its food in summer time 

 is almost exclusively composed of small worms and 

 insects and their larvae, and in the autumn months it 

 will eat various small seeds. In the winter time, when 

 insect life is scarce, and the worms deep in the hard 

 frozen ground, the Hedge Accentor, in company with the 

 Sparrows, frequents the farmyards and manure heaps, 

 and obtains the greater part of its food on the ground. 

 They will also approach our doorsteps in company with 

 the Robin, and subsist upon our bounty, picking up the 

 crumbs, and rewarding us with their active motions and 

 short and pleasing song. 



