HEDGE-SPARROW. 



better pretensions to such a character than the 

 Hedge-sparrow. 



In confinement it will eat anything that comes 

 to table. It is fond of German paste mixed with 

 the crumb of white bread, hemp, rape, and poppy- 

 seeds, and refuses none of these things immediately 

 on being imprisoned, and it soon seems as com- 

 pletely at ease as if accustomed to confinement.* 



The Cuckoo frequently, it is said, makes choice 

 of this bird's nest for the purpose of depositing 

 its egg, which the Sparrow heedlessly incubates 

 together with her own eggs. The young Cuckoo, 

 on being hatched, destroys the young or eggs 

 of its foster-mother, by turning them out of the 

 nest. It is scarcely probable, however, that the 

 female Cuckoo would be in a condition to depo- 

 sit her egg in the Hedge-sparrow's nest during 

 the incubation of her first brood, as that bird builds 

 in March, and the Cuckoo does not arrive in this 

 country till the latter end of April or the begin- 

 ning of May. 



* Bechstein's Cage Birds. 



