320 THE BIRDS OF HELIGOLAND 



occasions visited Europe. In Heligoland one of these species is a 

 common occurrence, while the other has reached the island on a 

 few occasions only. 



132. Hedge-Sparrow [HECKEN-BRUNELLE]. 

 ACCENTOR MODULARIS, Linn. 



Heligolandish : Back-Kuhrn Fink = Name the signification of which cannot be traced. 



Accentor modularis. Naumann, iii. 951. 



Hedge-Sparrow. Dresser, iii. 39. 



Accenteur mouch-et. Temniinck, Manuel, i. 249, iii. 174. 



Among the many feathered visitors of Heligoland, none displays 

 a more unobtrusive, amiable, and confiding disposition than this 

 inconspicuous little bird. It is always a pleasure, when one is busy 

 in the garden in the spring, to see some of them close to one, un- 

 disturbedly following their occupations on the ground. This love 

 for human society on the part of the bird is the more striking, 

 inasmuch as there appears to be but little social intercourse among 

 the birds themselves : each is bent on its own pursuits, little caring 

 either for good or ill about its fellows, however close to them it may 

 happen to be. It offers in this respect a striking contrast to that 

 equally trustful, but most pugnacious little bird, the Redbreast. 



It is only when getting ready for departure that these birds come 

 to associate with each other. This movement presents us with 

 a most fascinating insight into the life of these harmless creatures. 

 On a calm clear spring evening, soon after sunset, one may suddenly 

 see one of them fluttering up out of the bushes of some garden, 

 wheeling about hither and thither in short half-circles, and uttering 

 its clear call-notes ; soon this note is repeated with a half-dreamy 

 sound from all directions, and by-and-by some twenty or more of 

 the birds are seen to rise round about, all uttering their call-notes 

 at brief intervals, and with short and powerful wing-strokes ascend- 

 ing, breast erect, in circular and semicircular movements to and 

 fro ; after reaching a height of about 200 feet above the cliff, if no 

 others of their fellows follow the departing band, the call-notes are 

 silenced, and the travellers rise, with a slight bend to the east, 

 higher and higher, until they vanish from sight in the clear even- 

 ing sky, to pursue under the canopy of the stars their trackless 

 path to the far-off' nesting homes. 



The breeding area of the Hedge-Sparrow ranges throughout the 

 whole of central and northern Europe, reaching a latitude of about 

 70 N. in Scandinavia. 



