Catalogue of Irish Crustacea. 9 



Ornithology; from the Close of the 17th Century to the pre- 

 sent Time." I mention this, because most of the works which 

 have appeared on ornithology are therein noticed ; and many 

 unaccountable errors, similar to that I have just mentioned, 

 are pointed out. To this article, therefore, I refer Mr. Rennie; 

 and return we once more to the redbreast, which, we begin to 

 fear, will get rather ruffled at the repeated breaks in his history. 

 Another very favourite place of nidification with the redbreast 

 is the thatch of old sheds. The industrious little bird is not 

 satisfied with the natural nest, as it were, thus afforded, but 

 builds one within this, in the same way that the common 

 redstart (Ruticilla £uscinia) does; and neither of these birds 

 easily forsake their eggs. [IV. 465.] I have known redbreasts 

 caught many times a day on their eggs, yet continuing to sit 

 on them : — 



" Sit on ; away we would not bear 



Those freckled eggs, thy anxious care; 



Nor of thy plumes a feather mar, 

 Thou social bird ! 



" Sit on, and keep thy leafy bed, 

 Secure in thy secluded shed, 

 Till forth thy spotted brood be led 

 Yon shrubs among. " 



It only remains to give the description and colours ; which 

 is, as Wilson remarks, necessary even in the commonest birds. 

 Male. Head, back, wings, and tail, olive brown tinged with 

 green ; forehead, cheeks, and breast, reddish orange, some- 

 what inclining to brick-red; the red on the breast sur- 

 rounded with light grey ; belly white ; thighs brownish 

 green ; flanks the same ; quill-feathers brown, edged with 

 olive; bill and shanks dark brown; length 5} in. — Female. 

 Rather smaller ; colours not so bright, nor so distinct ; in 

 other particulars similar. — Young. Oil-green tinged with 

 brown, and spotted with lighter brown. In this state they 

 are sometimes, by the inexperienced, mistaken for the hedge 

 dunnoc. [IV. 4-12.] The common blueback (Sialia familiaris) 

 claims a near relationship to the robin redbreast; and was, 

 by some of the American ornithologists, called Nubecula 

 sialis, the blue-backed redbreast. 



Near Derby, October 5. 1835. 



Art. III. Catalogue of Irish Crustacea, Myriapoda, and Arach- 

 n'oida, selected from the Papers of the late John Templeton, Esq. 

 By Robert Templeton, Esq. 



Considerable additions have been made since the date of 

 this catalogue (1826), due principally to the exertions, in foe 



