HEDGE-SPARROW OR DUNNOCK 99 



snow is on the ground. And what Gilbert White called his " piping, 

 plaintive " call-note, does at times actually force itself upon the atten- 

 tion, especially when uttered in high-pitched tones by the excited 

 little assemblies, of three or four or more, that are not infrequently 

 met with during the autumn and winter. 



No doubt, also, the terms " innocent and harmless " are rightly 

 applied to the hedge-sparrow, considered from the point of view of 

 the horticulturist. The species has, in fact, been semi-officially placed 

 among those " which are wholly innoxious and more or less strictly 

 beneficial." l But with respect to other individuals of his own species, 

 he is neither more innocent, harmless, gentle, modest, amiable, nor 

 less pugnacious than the majority of birds. John's statement that he 

 quarrels with no one, based perhaps upon a similar, though less sweep- 

 ing statement by Macgillivray, is far from exact. Dunnocks not only 

 fight furiously among themselves in the spring, but later in the breeding 

 season, and also in the autumn. The fights in the spring are easily ex- 

 plained by love rivalry. But not so those that take place later. I noted, 

 for instance, two engaged in a fierce tussle on June 18th. A touch of 

 comedy was introduced into this particular affair in the shape of a 

 fledgling house-sparrow. At the moment when the hedge-sparrows, 

 after an interval for refreshments, were preparing to close once more, 

 the young glutton had the effrontery to come, with fluttering wings, 

 and beg food from both. His intervention passed, of course, unheeded, 

 and presently he was left begging to thin air, the fight having ended 

 in the rout and pursuit of one of the combatants. Hostilities may 

 have in this case been due to trespass by one of a pair into the nesting 

 area of another pair, or to the attempts of an unmated bird to thrust 

 his attentions upon a mated hen. Neither of these explanations 

 accounts satisfactorily for the autumn combats, unless these are to be 

 regarded as preliminary to the late breeding which sometimes takes 

 place from October to January. 2 The hedge-sparrow, let us add, 



1 R. Newstead, Food of Some British Birds, p. 16. Board of Agriculture. 

 s See above, vol. i. p. 50; and Nelson, Birds of Yorkshire, vol. i. 



