ANALOGIES OF THE HEDGE-SPARROW. 295 
? 
the mother endeavours to divert it by a stratagem, similar 
to that by which the partridge misleads the dog ; she 
springs up, flutters from spot to spot, and by such means 
allures her enemy to a safe distance.” * Finally, it may 
be incontestably proved, that although this bird is no 
sparrow, yet that this name has been, in one sense, 
rightly bestowed upon it. The true-sparrow (Pyr- 
gita, C.) and the genus Accentor, mutually represent 
each other ; for, by comparing the circles to which they 
respectively belong (as we have just done with the hedge- 
sparrow), these two groups stand in opposite or parallel 
relations: hence the general similarity of their colours, 
their familiarity, their mode of feeding, and the common 
nature of their food; and hence the name of hedge- 
sparrow. Both, in short, are rasorial types, and much 
which we have said of one belongs likewise to the 
other. 
(358.) When, therefore, it can be shown, as in the 
present instance, thatevery fact, however trivial or appa- 
rently unimportant, that has yet transpired on the struc- 
ture or habits of an animal can be accounted for by the 
application of a few general laws, we may feel all the 
assurance that demonstration can give, that our arrange- 
ment is that of Nature. Itseems impossible to conceive 
that the ingenuity of man can invent those innumerable 
proofs, and complicated verifications, thus applied to 
anatural group. The first test is that of affinity, the 
next of analogy, and the third of representation: and 
these having been now illustrated down to the lowest 
stage of analysis, we cannot conceive under what form fur- 
ther demonstrative evidence can be produced. We have 
selected for our purpose a faithful narrative of a familiar 
bird, and which has been drawn up by one who could 
have had no idea of the use that would subsequently be 
made of his remarks. But numerous others could have 
been cited, in addition to those whose affinities have 
been already explained upon the same principles} in a 
* Bewick’s Birds, vol. i. p. 222. 
+ See various other examples in Northern Zoology, vol. ii. 
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