This species was once a regular migrant to certain favoured localities in the East Anglian fens, but subsequent drainage has so affected its haunts that it is no longer to be found there. The last known British specimen was killed over fifty years ago. Possibly a few individuals may sometimes occur on migration, as it still breeds locally in some parts of Holland, but, except for historical interest, it can no longer be included among our British birds. [Illustration: GRASSHOPPER WARBLER _Locustella nævia_ Adult (above). Young (below)] The sexes are alike, and in size it slightly exceeds that of the preceding species. The upper parts are of a uniform reddish brown, under parts whitish, passing to buff on the breast and flanks. Length 5·7 in.; wing 2·6 in. THE HEDGE ACCENTOR Accentor modularis (Linnæus) Of dingy colour, quiet, unobtrusive, yet ever busy, the Hedge Accentor, vulgarly misnamed the “Hedge Sparrow,” resembles in his character those among us who are content, even in the bustle of our great cities, to go quietly on their way, doing good wherever they find opportunity and receiving uncomplainingly the kicks which their busier brethren are often only too eager to bestow. And so it is with the Hedge Sparrow; year in, year out, he is ever with us, quietly and diligently seeking his food along a hedge bottom, on the edge of a coppice, on the garden path, or wherever else he may happen to find himself. He does incalculable good in destroying numbers of noxious insects, and when winter comes, and such food is scarce, he turns his attention to seeds of all kinds, thus helping to keep down many weeds which would otherwise overrun our fields and gardens. Peaceful by nature, he has become very common, and imagining ill of none he is tame, hopping up from the path just in front of us, and disappearing quietly and without sound into the nearest cover, and then, working his way by quiet “creeping hops” (if such an expression be allowable) to the bottom of the bush or hedge, he reappears behind us. We in our turn, it is true, do not often molest him, in fact he is generally ignored and his presence unsuspected, and even when seen, many of us think—“only a sparrow!” and judge him and his acts by those of a race as different from him in habits and qualities as we are from the Chinese!