74 AN EARLY BUILDER. 



perhaps to some extent despised, because it is so common, 

 and, above all, so modest. Its nest is plundered by every 

 schoolboy, and its glossy greenish blue eggs, without spot 

 or stain, form the chief ornaments of every rustic oological 

 collection. Indeed, so many of these eggs are taken every 

 year that, as Knapp observes, i It is surprising how any of 

 the race are remaining, especially when we consider the 

 many casualties to which the old birds are exposed from their 

 tameness, and the young that are hatched from their situa- 

 tions.' This bird is a very early builder ; it makes its nest 

 of mosses, twigs, and the fibres of roots, lines it with hair, 

 fur, or wool, and places it in the bottom of a bush or hedge, 

 very commonly before the leaves have made much progress ; 

 so that being large, from four and a-half, to five inches in 

 diameter, it is easily seen and rifled of its contents, and 

 year after year the little bird continues to build, and its 

 numbers appear as numerous as though it were subjected to 

 no molestation and spoliation and persecution from man. 



The celebrated American ornithologist, Audubon, was 

 an admirer of the despised Hedge Sparrow, and called it l a 

 beautiful little bird,' i referring,' as Macgillivray remarks, 

 t more to its moral than its physical character.' Perhaps 

 so ; yet it is beautiful outwardly, we think ; its sober tints 

 are prettily blended, its shape is graceful, and its motions 

 easy and elegant. Its song, as Neville Wood says, t although 

 unobtrusive as its plumage, is remarkable for the sweetness 

 of its expression ; it is, however, short and deficient in power. 

 By the careless observer it probably passes wholly unnoticed, 

 though it certainly deserves the commendation of the bird- 

 fancier.' Bishop Mant speaks of 



The Hedge-row Chanter's chirrup, sharp 

 As twanging string of lute or harp. 



But the note is rather soft and sweet than sharp. Bechstein 

 includes it in his Cage Birds, and speaks of it as gay and 

 amusing in confinement, and easily tamed. ' The notes 

 are usually uttered from the middle, or top of a hedge, or 

 low bank, and occasionally from the lower branches of 

 trees. The whole song appears to consist of but two pas- 

 sages, and these are commonly uttered without a pause. 



