THE HEDGE-SPARROW. 129 



The food of Savi's Warbler is believed to consist entirely of insects and their 

 larvae ; doubtless spiders are also eaten by it as by all other Warblers. 



The flight of this bird is said to have the same character as that of a Wren. 



As a cage-bird I should imagine that, excepting for its rarity, Savi's Warbler 

 would be more irritating than interesting ; on clear days its monotonous trill is 

 said to be almost incessant. I once had a Canary which had been hand-reared, 

 and had therefore not learned its proper song : this bird never got beyond a high- 

 pitched key-whistle, or monotonous trill ; when it died I cannot say that I very 

 deeply regretted my loss : at the same time even this apology for a song was 

 heavenly music compared with the incessant wheel- screeching of a pair of Rosy- 

 faced Love-birds, and anyone who had passed through a week of torment such as 

 I once experienced from these discord-producers, might perhaps sit down and 

 listen to Savi's Warbler with a beaming countenance. 



Family TURDIDsE. Subfamily A CCENTORINJE. 



THE HEDGE-SPARROW. 



Accentor inodularis, LINN. 



E 



'XCEPTING in the extreme north of Europe, this species breeds pretty 



t generally ; in Norway to the forest boundary and to the east up to 60 N. 



lat, but in the north it is rarely found during the winter, migrating thence in 

 autumn to Southern Europe, and occasionally to North Africa. South of the 

 Baltic and westwards to Northern Spain and Portugal it is generally distributed 

 during the summer ; a few breeding in the mountains of Italy, as well as Asia 

 Minor, Palestine and the Caucasus : in the Lebanon and in Arabia Petraea it also 

 occurs in winter. 



VOL. I. 



