THE HEDGE SPARROW. 149 



lameness, and the young that are hatched from 

 their situation. The plumage of this motacilla is 

 remarkably sober and grave, and all its actions are 

 quiet and conformable to its appearance. Its song 

 is short, sweet, and gentle. Sometimes it is pro- 

 longed, but generally the bird perches on the sum- 

 mit of some bush, utters its brief modulation, and 

 seeks retirement again. Its chief habitation is some 

 hedge in the rick -yard, some cottage-garden, or 

 near society with man. Unobtrusive, it does not 

 enter our dwellings like the redbreast, but picks 

 minute insects from the edges of drains and ditches, 

 or morsels from the door of the poorest dwelling in 

 the village. As an example of a household or 

 domestic bird, none can be found with better pre- 

 tensions to such a character than the hedge sparrow. 

 I have often thought that this bird, the chaffinch, 

 and some others, obtain much of their support in 

 the winter and spring seasons, especially when the 

 ground is covered with snow, by feeding upon the 

 capsules or fertile heads of various mosses, having 

 frequently noticed them pecking and masticating 

 something upon the walls and in such places where 

 these plants abound, and nothing besides, that could 

 afford subsistence to any animated creature, parti- 

 cularly bryum subulatum (Dillineus), and these 

 races perfect their capsules principally during those 

 periods in which other matters which could afford 

 them sustenance is sparingly found. The object of 

 the existence of many of these lowly plants has 

 been considered as obscure > and their profusion a 



