BIRDS OF THE HOMESTEAD 55 



species is also noticeable in the Chaffinch, but this 

 usually occurs in the breeding season only. 



The Robin is one of the earliest birds to breed, 

 and its nest is usually placed in a bank or broken 

 wall, but more eccentric sites are constantly chosen. 

 Every season brings an account of nests found in 

 the pocket of a disused coat hanging in an out- 

 house, in an old hat, or boot, within the shade of 

 a broken lamp, and so forth. 



The eggs are five to seven in number, and are 

 streaked and blurred with red on a bluish-white 

 ground. The young are of a mottled brown hue, 

 and show little or no trace of the red breast of 

 adolescence before the first moult. 



The distribution of the Robin is general through- 

 out Europe, but in many countries it is known as 

 a migrant only. It occurs in the North up to a 

 latitude of 68°. 



The song of the Robin is neither powerful nor 

 varied, but it has a peculiar sweetness and charm, 

 which may be partly derived from the circumstances 

 amidst which it is uttered. On a dreary autumn 

 day, when the leaves of the dying summer are 

 drifting to the earth, and a desolate wind is sighing 

 through the upper branches, already bare; at a time 

 when all other warblers are silent, or have dis- 

 appeared with the decay of the season's prosperity, 

 there, quite alone, sits the little Redbreast, giving 

 the world what cheer he can, all unresentful of the 

 days when his plaintive notes were neglected and 

 overborne in the ringing chorus of the coppice. 

 Many legends have been woven about him : that, 

 in pity, he covered the Babes in the Wood with the 



