HEDGE ACCENTOR. 83 



end of that month. Instances are recorded of the nest and eggs 

 being found in December and January ; the earliest being on 

 the [2th of December, 1879, near Stokesley, as noted by Mr. 

 H. Kerr. A nest at Beverley (Zool., 1863, p. 1445), noted by 

 Mr, W. W. Boulton, contained four eggs on the 4th of January, 

 1863. Mr. W. Eagle Clarke has found eggs on the T5th of 

 March; and a nest with eggs on the point of hatching on the 

 7th of April came under his notice. There are also other 

 instances in which singularly early nests have been found in 

 exceptionally mild seasons. Although five to six is the usual 

 number of eggs, Mr. Baldwin Young states (in litt.) it only lays 

 three to four in his district (Richmond Park, Sheffield), five 

 very rarely. Colourless examples of the eggs have occasionally 

 been noticed. 



Pale rufous varieties of the bird are on record, as observed 

 or captured in the county (Zool., 1865, p. 9491; 1866, p. 29; 

 1877, p. 256). In the Leeds Museum is included an albino 

 specimen, shot near that town in the winter of 1884 or 5, and 

 Mr. Varley possessed an entirely black example obtained at 

 Almondbury Bank, near Huddersfield, on the 14th of May, 1865. 



The Hedge Accentor is one of the best known foster 

 parents of the Cuckoo, the colour of whose egg is sometimes 

 assimilated to that of the fosterer; and Mr. T. Stephenson, of 

 Whitby, informs us that he once found a Hedge Sparrow's nest 

 containing four of her own eggs and a cuckoo's, which latter was 

 a little larger and nearly the same colour as the Hedge Sparrow's. 



We have observed that this bird will occasionally eat grain 

 which is scattered in a garden for the feeding of poultry. 



An early allusion, perhaps the earliest, to this species as a 

 Yorkshire bird is contained in the communication addressed by 

 Dr. Martin Lister to John Ray and dated York, February the 

 8th, 1675, where it is thus alluded to: 'The Currucca or Hedge 

 Sparrow, which I have often seen, lays sea-green or pale blue 

 eggs, which neatly emptied and wired, fair ladies wear at their 

 ears for pendants,' 



