SYLVIAD.E. 77 



the " Hedgesparrow," is a very unassuming little 

 bird neat, but certainly not gaudy, in plumage. It 

 may be seen in every shrubbery and hedge-row in 

 the country, and its song heard throughout the 

 greater part of the year. In these parts it is very 

 generally known by the name of " Dunnock," to 

 which the term "Blind" is often prefixed. 



Why the Hedgesparrow is so commonly called the 

 " Blind Dunnock " I do not know, unless it be on 

 account of its stupid blindness in not distinguishing 

 the Cuckoo's egg when laid in its nest, which is so 

 essentially different in colour from its own bright 

 blue eggs, and also for its want of discernment in 

 nursing up the great overgrown young of that bird, 

 while it leaves its own to starve or to be pushed out 

 of the nest. Many other birds, however, are equally 

 stupid in this respect, but the Hedgesparrow seems 

 to have gained a special notoriety even before the 

 time of Shakspeare, for he quotes the lines : 



" The Hedgesparrow nursed the Cuckoo so long, 

 It had its head bit off by its young." 



The food of the Hedgesparrow consists prin- 

 cipally of insects, such as small beetles, caterpillars 

 and flies, and the larvae of many insects; in the 

 autumn and winter of seeds also, which it picks up 

 from the ground : the young birds are said to be in- 

 variably fed with insects : how this may be I am not 

 sure, but as I have a pair of Hedgesparrows now 



H 3 



