m 



February 



For on the 5th February, the hedge-sparrow 

 struck the first distinctive note of spring, a song 

 consisting of two notes repeated four or five times 

 in hurried succession. There had been other songs 

 during the hard months songs which were a presence 

 rather than a promise ; but the gentle hedge-sparrow, 

 although also one of the brave little band which 

 shares the winter with us, has not the proud defiance 

 of the robin, nor the irrepressible vitality of the 

 wren, which prompt them to fling a song in the face 

 of winter whenever they get a chance. Nor has he 

 the emotional temperament of the throstle, which 

 overflows in song throughout the winter, provided 

 only the earth be left unlocked to his soft bill, so that 

 he may eat and live. No ; the hedge-sparrow is just 

 a plain, methodical little spirit, with sufficient prose 

 in him to save him from singing to bare fields and 

 hedges, but ready to recognize the very first peep of 

 spring, and to herald it forth to the world at large to 

 the best of his limited powers. So it comes that his 

 is ever the distinctive spring song the song that 

 springs up again after a winter lapse. He may now 

 be seen with his mate in the hedgerows, hopping 

 from twig to twig about her, and making his court 

 with a continuous shuffle of his wings. This same 

 shivering of the wings is used by young birds when 

 clamouring to be fed, and in the act of receiving 

 food. Eating is probably as exciting to young birds 

 as wooing is to their elders. 



On the 7th February the stormcock justified his 

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