The Plaintive Hedge-Sparrow 



Hedge-sparrows have a remarkable flirt with their wings in 

 breeding-time. As soon as frosty mornings come, they make a 

 very piping, plaintive noise. G. W. 



THE hedge-sparrow's habit of flirting its wings has 

 won him the name " Shuffle wing." Another common 

 name is "Dunnock," another "Hedge-accentor," and 

 these really are better than his proper name, since he 

 is no sparrow, and only like a house-sparrow in having 

 brownish upper plumage, and his bill is soft, for insect- 

 eating, while the sparrow's is hard for grain-eating. 



These are very quiet, modest, and plaintive little 

 birds, sober in hue, and sober in character. Very 

 sweet is their gentle song, heard sometimes in winter, 

 as well as in the summer. When the hedge-sparrows 

 come to our bird-table, they always offer up a song 

 of thanksgiving, before and after their meal. And in 

 winter, when they have been hunting about industri- 

 ously in the shrubbery, whatever the weather, the 

 little song is heard when the search is finished. 



What a glad moment that is when, for the first time 

 in a season, one looks into a hedge-sparrow's nest, 

 and sees, lying on the bed of horse -hair, the lovely 

 sky-blue eggs ! It is one of the prettiest nests, with 

 its green moss and blue eggs, when set, in April, in a 

 furze-bush, all golden with bloom. 

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