THE HEDGE SPARROW. 565 



the Hedge Sparrow, who is obliged to give up the whole of her 

 nest to a supposititious offspring, and to bestow upon a single 

 intruder all the care and attention which would otherwise have 

 been lavished upon the five rightful occupants. 



Besides the cats, rats, and weasels, there are direful feathered 

 foes, such as the shrike, which steals away the young and carries 

 them to its home, where it hangs them up in its natural larder, 

 and the magpie, which will sometimes work great havoc among 

 the young or eggs. Now and then the owl makes a meal of a 

 young bird, as I can testify from personal experience, and the 

 viper is always ready to glide up the stems of the shrubs amid 

 which the bird has built, to insert its baleful head into the 

 nest, and to swallow the callow young. 



Still, as the Hedge Sparrow generally produces two broods of 

 young in a year, and sometimes three, all her offspring are not 

 destroyed by these foes, and she may have the satisfaction of 

 rearing some of her young. The nest is nicely, substantially, 

 but not elegantly made, as, indeed, might be inferred from its 

 lowly position. Nests upon or near the ground are very seldom 

 made with much attention to elegance of architecture, the 

 greatest trimness of nest-building skill being displayed in those 

 homes which are placed upon lofty branches or suspended from 

 slender twigs. It is a rather large nest, and is made of moss, 

 wool, hair, and similar materials. As is generally the case with 

 the group of birds to which the Hedge Sparrow belongs, the 

 eggs are five in number, and on an average, three young ia each 

 brood attain maturity. 



