HEDGE-SPARROW. 
61 
woodlands till ten o’clock, long after other birds have gone to repose.” I 
have not met with this bird around Leicester. 
Mr. Macaulay records (‘ Mid. Nat.,’ 1881, p. 2do) : — “ Always heard, but 
very seldom seen. The only time I have seen it was when a pair built under 
a bush in the garden at Gumley Rectory, and when the young were hatched 
I contrived to obtain a good view of the old bird when engaged in feeding 
the young.” Mr. Davenport found a nest in May, 1879, m Skeffington 
Wood, with five eggs; another in INfay, 188.3, in a spinney near Ashlands, 
containing six eggs, and a third on 21st May, 1884. In 1886 it nested in 
INIerevale Wood or Mirabel Hole ^^'ood, a Fox-cover near Stockerstone {vide 
Mr. Horn’s note below). On 4th June, 1887, the Rev. Hugh Parry, of Tugby, 
took, from under a briar-bush in Tugby Wood, a nest and six eggs, two of 
which, and the nest, he kindly presented to the Museum. 
In Rutland. — A summer migrant, sparingly distributed, and breeding. — 
Lord Gainsborough informs me that it has been reported at Luffenham by 
Mr. A. G. Elliott ; at Hornsby by Mr. J. Birch ; at Exton by W. Bell ; at 
Manton by Mr. J. Whitaker. In Morris’s ‘British Birds,’ vol. iii., p. 180, it 
is stated : — “ It is not uncommon in the county of Rutland, in the neigh- 
bourhood of Uppingham,” and this statement is borne out by the observation 
of Mr. W. J. Horn, who writes: — “I first saw this bird on 23rd April, 1886, 
and, as I stood within a few feet of it, I had a good view, the bird going 
on with its feeding and taking no notice of me whatever. The next day I 
heard its remarkable note in three different places, and there remained to 
breed at least seven pairs of these birds : viz., one pair in Merevale Wood 
(Leicestershire) ; three pairs in Stoke Wood ; two pairs in Wardley Wood ; 
and one pair took up their quarters in a thick hedge on the road leading 
from Uppingham to Beaumont Chase. One of the masters in Uppingham 
School found the nest with eggs many years ago. On one occasion I heard 
a Grasshopper- Warbler and two Nightingales all singing at the same time 
at mid-day.” 
Sub-family AGGENTORINjE. 
HEDGE-SPARROW. Accentor modtdaris (Linnseus). 
“ Dunnock,” “ Shuffle-wing.” 
Resident and common ; sometimes double-brooded. — Harley remarked that 
it is liable to a tubercular disease, he having seen the eyelids, base of the 
bill, and a great part of the occiput covered with small tubercles and 
warts — a peculiarity which I have frequently noticed in this bird, whose feet 
are also liable to be similarly affected. 
C. Adcock informs me that, in the summer of 1886, he had a pretty 
variety, the wings and back being of a cream colour. 
