56 HANDBOOK OF BRITISH INLAND BIRDS 
proper at all, having gained the name from the 
general similarity of his size and plumage, and his 
similar liking for the haunts of man. The name 
of Hedge Accentor has accordingly been given him 
by some scientific people, as his nearest relative is 
the Alpine Accentor, a bird which has its head- 
quarters in the Alps and other Central European 
mountains, and only very rarely visits this country. 
But the name does not seem likely to become 
popular, though it is now a good many years old, 
and this can hardly be regretted. Though it is not 
a brightly-coloured little bird, there is a great deal 
of quiet beauty about the pencilled greys and 
browns of the Hedge-sparrow's plumage. Its 
sweet but rather weak little song, which resembles 
the Robin's in much the same way as moonlight 
imitates sunlight, is also a well-known and welcome 
feature of the dank and leafless February days, 
when we first begin to hear it in the lanes and in 
our gardens. V/hile the days are still shortening, 
too, its curious, shrill piping as it uneasily prepares 
to go to roost in the gathering winter twilight, is a 
feature which arrests the attention. It is one of the 
half-dozen earliest birds to nest, the eggs being 
often laid before the end of March, The nest is 
fairly well concealed among the stumps and thorns 
of a hedgerow or thicket, in an evergreen garden 
shrub, in a pile of sticks, or on an ivy-covered trunk 
