100 HEDGE-SPARROW 



does not lack the courage and the ability to defend himself against 

 individuals of other species. One has been seen to attack a bantam 

 and drive him from the grain scattered for the poultry. 1 I have seen 

 even the robin, most combative of birds, turn tail to a hedge-sparrow 

 whose patience he had exhausted. Not that the latter has the militant 

 spirit of the robin, who, owing to the peculiar circumstances which 

 have been described in the chapter devoted to him, is exceptionally 

 pugnacious. On the other hand, enough has been said to show that 

 the hedge-sparrow is not exceptionally pacific. 



It has always seemed to me that the bird has a somewhat high- 

 strung, excitable, fidgety disposition, to which it gives frequent 

 expression in spasmodic jerks or flirts of the wing. These are so 

 noticeable that they have given it one of its popular names shuffle- 

 wing. Gilbert White to the contrary notwithstanding, these flicks of 

 the wing occur at all seasons, and become most marked in moments 

 of excitement, as, for instance, when the bird is in a fighting mood. 

 Then they are frequently repeated, and are accompanied by the 

 familiar piping note uttered in a high, angry key. 



It is more than probable that the writers quoted at the head 

 of this chapter would have modified their estimates of the dunnock's 

 character, if they had had an opportunity of witnessing the vivacious 

 and dashing manner of his love-making. I have seen him standing on 

 the ground, his feathers puffed out, and his wings quivering with 

 emotion, while his mate hopped or danced about behind him, making- 

 feints as if to peck, till, with a final playful rush, she drove him away. 

 After which as is the manner of birds they adjourned for refresh- 

 ments. This occurred on March 31st, when the pair had already built 

 their nest. But the cock is not content merely to make himself 

 heroically big and quiver his wings. He performs a nuptial flight 

 that in its grace of motion resembles that of the chiffchaff. 2 He 

 seems to float through the air towards his mate on outspread slowly 



1 Nelson, Birds of Yorkshire, vol. i. p. 100. 



2 H. E. Howard, British Warblers, Part II., Chiffchaff, p. 14. 



