52 BRITISH BIRDS’ EGGS. 
Famity ACCENTORIDA. 
HEDGE SPARROW (orn ACCENTOR). 
AccENTOR MoDULARIS, Linn. 
Pl. VIIL., figs. 4-6. 
Geogr. distr.— Europe, ranging eastward as far as Persia; generally 
distributed, resident and abundant throughout Great Britain. 
Food.—Seeds of weeds, and insects in all stages. 
Nest.—Cup-shaped, rather deep, usually in a framework of hawthorn 
or other twigs, sometimes dead fragments of furze, the walls thick and 
loosely formed of a quantity of green moss, often, but not always, with 
a liberal intermixture of dry grass, and occasionally a little sheep’s 
wool; thickly lined with different kinds of hair and a quantity of fine 
wool. 
Position of nest.—In hedges, thickets, furze and other bushes ; very 
rarely in a tuft of grass on the ground.* 
Number of eggs.—4-6 ; usually 5. 
Time of nidvficaton.—III-VI; May. 
This species has been known to build and lay its eggs as 
early as the beginning of January; but, of course, this was 
owing to the mildness of the weather, which not unfre- 
quently deceives our resident birds; as a rule, it commences 
nidification towards the end of April, but, owing to the 
violent storms of wind and rain which not unfrequently 
occur during that month, its nest becomes often so uncom- 
fortable that I have at that season found it deserted with its 
full complement of eggs and even with fledglings. May is, 
therefore, the month during which nests of the Hedge 
Sparrow most abound, and so different are some of these 
in external appearance that they would, at first sight, hardly 
be supposed to be built by the same species; thus of seven 
nests which I have retained for my collection one is as 
round, neat, and soft as the typical artist’s ideal, the outer 
walls being formed of very fine bents, fibre and moss, whereas 
another is as rough as if dragged together with a rake, the 
outer walls being composed almost wholly of the roots of 
couch grass (twitch). Asa rule the nest is about as neat 
as that ofthe Greenfinch. The eggs vary very little, those 
which I have figured representing the extreme modifications 
which I have met with; the pear-shaped form is, however, 
rare. 
* An instance of a nest being built in w cabbage was recorded by 
A. E. Shaw in 1877. 
