THE ROBIN 



Erithacus rubecula 



Of all our favourite song birds the Robin is most 

 familiar and best beloved. We have finer singers, 

 it is true, yet none so prime a favourite as the 

 Robin. These sweeter vocalists pay us but fleeting 

 visits and desert us with the change of season ; not 

 so the Robin, for as the winter draws nigh he 

 approaches us still more trustfully, and warbles to 

 us notes of prophetic cheerfulness. Wherever there 

 is sufficient cover this species may be found resident 

 throughout the British Islands from the Orkneys 

 to Land's End. Like many other birds that might 

 be mentioned, the Robin has extended its range 

 northwards with the planting of trees and the 

 bringing of waste lands into cultivation. Its extra 

 British range embraces the whole of Europe up to 

 or even beyond the Arctic Circle. In Russia, how- 

 ever, it is said to become rarer, and no cases have 

 been recorded of its breeding east of the Urals. 

 South of the Mediterranean its range extends to 



