AND NEIGHBOURHOOD. 103 



Birds,' 1st vol. pp. 303, 304, will be found some valid 

 reasons for adhering to the established name of 

 Hedge-Sparrow for this species ; the only other by 

 which it seems to be known is Dunnock, but I never 

 myself heard this used in any part of the country. 

 The Hedge-Sparrow usually rears two, and sometimes 

 three broods in a season, but from the situation of 

 the nest, the eggs are very often discovered and 

 devoured by mice and rats ; I have known of seven 

 out of eleven clutches of eggs of this bird thus de- 

 stroyed in one season. 



36. REDBREAST. 



Erythacus rubecula. 



I can add nothing worthy of record to the mass of 

 accessible and trustworthy information already in 

 print with regard to this well-known and favourite 

 bird. In most of the countries on the Mediterranean 

 it is a winter visitor, and in South France and Italy 

 is esteemed for the table, but I have not found that 

 it is more thought of from a culinary point of view 

 in those countries than the many other species of 

 small birds which are to be found hanging by dozens 

 in the markets at the time of the autumnal migration. 

 That the Redbreast is a migratory bird is obvious to 

 the most ordinary observer who lives in the country, 

 for whilst in September and October our shrubberies 

 and lawns are full of young and old Robins, and 

 furious battles raging in every direction, in the dead 

 of winter their number will be reduced to compara- 

 tively few pairs, each of which keeps a district or beat 

 to itself, and impetuously resents the intrusion therein 

 of a stranger of the same species. We had for some 



