THE ARCHITECTURE OF THE HEDGEROWS. 151 



little more than heaps of moss, wool, and feathers, and 

 resemble each other very closely in their general 

 characteristics. The eggs of all these birds are white, 

 spotted with reddish brown. Another charming little 

 nest found in the hedgerows in early summer is that 

 of the Lesser Redpole. It is a beautiful little structure, 

 placed in a crotch like that of the Chaffinch, and is made 

 externally of dry grass, fine roots, and slender twigs, and 

 lined with down from the willow tree, and a few feathers. 

 Its fabrication is exquisite. The eggs are four or five 

 in number, greenish-blue in ground colour, spotted with 

 purplish-red and gray, and occasionally streaked with 

 very dark-brown. 



As soon as the hedgerows become dense with summer 

 foliage, the Whitethroat's scolding notes may be heard 

 from the deepest cover, where the brambles and briars 

 and woodbine interlace and cluster over the old thorn 

 bushes. You may trace the bird's movements as it 

 hurries along the hedge, by the trembling of the twigs 

 and leaves : and every now and then it bursts out into 

 a garrulous little song, often as it flies above the bushes. 

 Its nest is made amongst the brambles, or even in the 

 tall nettles and meadow-sweet on the bank below the 

 hedge. Few nests are so flimsy-looking as the White- 

 throat's ; it looks all too slender to support its owner and 

 the tender young. It is made almost exclusively of 

 dead grass stalks ; not the broad flat leaves, but the 



