6 Habits, Haunts, and Nidificatioii 



I would send its whole stock, root and branch, back again to 

 the country whence it came; seeing that we have gained 

 nothing by letting it exterminate the original English rat, 

 Walton Hall, Nov. 9. 1835. 



Art. II. On the Habits, Haunts, and Nidification of the Robin 

 Redbreast Nubecula familiar is Blyth.) By S. D. W. 



" The redbreast swells, 



In the slow fading wood, his little throat 

 Alone, for other birds have dropped their note." 



What lover of nature has not watched, admired, and en- 

 couraged that confiding familiar bird, the robin redbreast, 

 singing so cheerily his " home beside ? " This sweet little 

 garden minstrel, although petted by every one, has, strange 

 to say, been much maligned : no less a charge than that of 

 ingratitude has been preferred against him. He is represented 

 as visiting the dwellings of man in winter, for the sake of food 

 and warmth ; and then, continue the accurate observers, he 

 retires to the inmost recesses of the woodland shade, or else 

 resorts to our gardens to rob us of the scarlet-fruited currant* 

 As far as my experience has gone, this is an erroneous state- 

 ment ; for the bird of " the russet wing and ruddy breast " 

 deserves the epithet familiaris (so aptly applied by Mr. Blyth) 

 all the year round. In the summer time, two or three of these 

 little favourites enter a room about the same time, unaware of 

 each other's presence ; the third has scarce passed the window 

 sill, when yon saucy little fellow perched on the bookcase 

 darts down on it, and the intruder is well off if his " scarlet 

 btomacher " sustains no damage : the second, seeing the state 

 of affairs, likewise makes a speedy retreat, and the conqueror 

 remains the sole feathered possessor of the room. He forthwith 

 commences a song of self-gratulation, which might, perhaps, 

 be interpreted, — 



" I am monarch of all I survey, 



My right there is none to dispute;" 



and the little fellow looks happier and perter than ever. 



This is a blemish in the character of this social bird which 

 must not be concealed ; and a very prominent trait it is. I 

 have frequently witnessed desperate battles on frosty days, 

 and their collisions seem to be of more frequent occurrence in 

 winter than at other seasons ; rather a rough way of keeping 

 each other warm, it must be confessed. And it is not only 

 with birds of its own species that the redbreast wages war, 



