I4O BIRD-LIFE IN A SOUTHERN COUNTY. 



we would refer the sufficiently interested reader. 

 Let him rest assured that no mild climatic con- 

 ditions ever tempt the birds indigenous to the 

 county to winter within its limits. The Garden 

 Warbler may also be noticed, if sparingly, in the 

 hedges, especially those bordering gardens and 

 orchards ; while the delicate-looking little Willow 

 Wren, common and widely dispersed, must be 

 ranked as one of the heralds of spring to be seen 

 in most hedges in the sheltered districts. So far 

 as our experience goes, the Willow Wren is not so 

 abundant as the ChiffchafF, and shows a special 

 liking for orchards and small plantations where 

 brushwood is plentiful. The Hedge Sparrow is 

 common, and its pretty nest is one of the first 

 prizes of the spring. The glad, if short, carol of 

 the male is one of the most familiar sounds of the 

 hedgerow all the year round, with the exception of 

 the moulting season. The nest of this species is a 

 very favourite one with the Cuckoo in Devonshire, 

 and we have many notes of eggs being taken from 

 it, and of Hedge Sparrows bringing up the young. 

 A few summers ago a young Cuckoo was thus 

 reared in a garden nearly in the centre of Tor- 

 quay; others similarly almost every season in 



