i 1 i oa sle i ne, with a lining ir:
composed of moss and wool, intermingled with fine roots and slender bits of twig, with a lining of hair
iS LY >
the eggs are four or five in number, of a beautiful verditer-blue. .
Mr. Hewitson says that the nest is sometimes built almost entirely of dry grass, that in two instances he
has seen it so imperfectly finished that the thorns were sticking through the inside, apparently very much to

the discomfort of the old bird, and that he does not remember to have ever found one, except near to

some habitation.

« At all seasons,” says Macgillivray, ‘“ these birds are seen in the gardens, and by the hedges near houses ;
but during winter and spring they are much more numerous there ; for those which in summer preferred
remote places then approach the habitations of man, although some still keep aloof. Hawthorn hedges are
their favourite haunts, and on the ground along their bases they search for small seeds and insects, frequently
making short pedestrian excursions into the fields on the one hand or the footpath on the Cree They flit
about amorg the bushes with great liveliness, often running along the ground, and seldom perching on the
upper branches. Owing to the dulness of their colouring and the celerity with ee they take shelter,
they are not very readily perceived ; but they can scarcely be called sy under any Se : aul ey
often allow of approach within a few yards, or even feet, without showing any apprehension. Even in winter
they are not at all gregarious ; for you seldom find more than two or three ee and it is very rare to
see two flying in the same direction. Their flights are generally very short, and without undulation.

«¢ After the middle of spring they are less frequently seen about houses ; and at all seasons they are to be
found in hedges and among bushes, seldom appearing in open ground or upon trees. In fine weather they
sing even in winter; nor is there any season of the year at which they are entirely mute; but from the
middle of spring to the end of May especially, they are heard chanting their short, clear, pleasantly modulated
but not remarkably mellow song, generally when perched on a twig, but sometimes on the ground or on a
wall. During the breeding-season the shake of their wings increases to a shuffle, or kind of flutter, which
they execute at short intervals ; and this habit can hardly fail to be observed by the most incurious. Their
ordinary cry is a slight ‘cheep.’ They are not by any means quarrelsome, either among themselves or other
small birds, and they seem to pair in the quietest manner possible.”

Although I have said that the Hedge-Accentor is stationary in this country, it seems likely that a large
accession to the number of resident birds takes place in spring ; for Mr. Bartlett tells me that on the morning
of the 18th of April, 1868, he observed many in the Gardens of the Zoological Society, which appeared to
have arrived in the night ; he also informed me that a pair or two remain in the Gardens during the whole
of the winter.

The sexes of the Hedge-Accentor are so very similar in colour that by dissection alone can the male be
distinguished from the female. I must remark that the bird killed by me in Malta, and a specimen in my
collection from the environs of Batum, in Turkey, are somewhat redder in their general tone of colouring,
and of smaller size, than our birds. Feathers of the head, upper surface, and wing-coverts olive, with a
broad mark of blackish brown down the centre of each ; primaries, secondaries, and tail-feathers brown,
margined with olive ; ear-coverts brown, striated with whitish ; sides of head, neck, and breast grey, fading
into greyish white on the chin, and into still duller white on the abdomen ; flanks olive, streaked with brown ;
under tail-coverts brown, margined with dull white ; bill black, feet flesh-colour.

A young bird caught on the 8th of May had the bill very broad at the base, and of a dull purplish red,
passing into olivaceous orange towards the tip, where it was brilliant and transparent ; the gape swollen
or dilated ; inside of the mouth and tongue brilliant orange; irides dark olivaceous hazel ; a neat ring of
feathers round the eye; breast and upper surface browner and much more spotted than in the adult; the
legs and feet purplish flesh-colour.

I must not close this paper without remarking that, although the bird here represented is commonly
known by the trivial name of Hedgesparrow, it is not related to the Sparrows, but is a true Sylviine bird.

The figures are of the natural size. The scarlet fungus is the Peziza coccinea.

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