HISTORY OF BRITISH BIRDS 77 



love of bird-life reflected in his description of this 

 bird, of which he says that it is " very noticeable for 

 a solitariness and depression of appearance, as well 

 as for its habit of perching on the point of a branch, 

 the top of a stake, a rail, or a projection of or a hole 

 in a wall, from whence it can ' comprehend all 

 vagroms ' in the shape of winged insects that come 

 within its ken. You seem to think that it is listless, 

 but on a sudden it darts off from its stance, some- 

 times led a little way in chase in an irregular 

 manner, like a butterfly ; a snap of the bill tells you 

 that it has unerringly captured a fly, and it is back 

 to its perch, which it generally, but not invariably, 

 returns to after these short sorties. It has a habit 

 of flirting its wings aside and upwards a little, while 

 perched, every now and then. Although so quiet a 

 little thing, it will sometimes daringly attack any 

 wanderer who seems likely to molest its ' sacred 

 bower/ signifying first its alarm by a snapping of 

 the bill." 



The modest and retiring little Hedge-Sparrow, or 

 Dunnock, never escaped his observant eye. Sober 

 though his dress be and subdued his note, he is 

 none the less loved on that account. After allud- 

 ing to the severity of the winter of 1853, when the 

 snow lay a foot thick on the ground, he wrote of 

 this feathered favourite in a way that showed his 

 keen appreciation of the natural and unassuming 

 habits of the bird. " In such severe weather," 

 he writes, " when one would suppose that all 

 emotion must be chilled in the breast of the very 



