98 A SPRING HERESY 



own beat by the hawthorn hedge, is the Hedge- 

 sparrow. It may nest in the neighbourhood of 

 houses, in which case it will enter gardens as part of 

 its recognised territory. Still, even then, its habit of 

 hopping quietly by itself, avoiding the contentious 

 company of House-sparrows and Starlings, Black- 

 birds and Thrushes, stamps it a solitary. The 

 Robin, too, is solitary, but will advance, proud and 

 erect, into the midst of the most heterogeneous mob 

 of mendicants to share the good things going with 

 them, but not of them and having satisfied himself, 

 go his own way at once ; but the little brown hermit 

 of the hedgerow with smoke grey cowl, goes meekly 

 and alone, hopping demurely on the side-walk with 

 head depressed, or tripping in and out at the foot 

 of the hedge, gathering unconsidered trifles as he 

 goes. Fog and frost will not force him from his 

 habitual haunt, though it be in the open land ; and 

 from the hedgerow where he sang by the nest in 

 earliest spring, where he remained the summer 

 through, and whence, save for a short interval of 

 autumn silence, he called with his single, melancholy 

 "Peep!" throughout the fall, he now sends his 

 plaintive cry over the fog-wrapped, frost-bound 

 land. 



Wren, Robin, and Dunnock, solitaries all, how 

 distinct in their personalities, and yet common in 

 this, that Britishers have recognised in them, jointly 

 or severally, types of homely virtues independence, 

 energy, boldness, reserve typical also of the best of 

 their race. If any doubt this, let him pass in review 

 other birds as closely associated with his domestic 

 life as these House-sparrow and Starling, Blackbird 



