THE HEDGE SPAEEOW. 95 



before his brother warblers have arrived from the south, he 

 has chosen his mate, built his snug nest, and too probably 

 commenced a second ; for unsuspicious in nature, he does 

 not retire to solitary places for this purpose, and the leafless 

 hedges but ill conceal his labours from the peering eyes of 

 all-destroying ploughboys. Such are nearly all his "short 

 and simple annals." He quarrels with no one, he achieves 

 no distinction, thi-owing no one into ecstasies with his song, 

 and stealing no one's fruit ; unobtrusive and innocent, he 

 claims no notice, and dreads no resentment ; and so, through 

 all the even tenor of his way, he is, without knowing it, the 

 favourite of children, and of all the good and gentle. 



THE REDBEEAST. 



ERYTHACA RUBECULA, 



Upper parts brownish grey tinged with olive ; forehead, lore, and breast red, 

 the red edged with ash-grey ; abdomen white. Female like the inale, except 

 that the upper parts are asli-brown, the red less bright, and the grey sur- 

 rounding it less conspicuous. Length, five inches and three quarters. Eggs 

 yellowish white, spotted with light reddish brown. 



The Eedbreast is everywhere invested with a kind of 

 sanctity beyond all other birds. Its wonted habit of 

 making i|is appearance, no one knows whence, to greet 

 the resting traveller in places the most lonely — its evident 

 predilection for the society of the out-of-door labourer, 

 whatever his occupation — the constancy with which it 

 affects human halbitations — and the readiness with which, 

 without coaxing, or taming, or training, it throws itseK 

 on human hospitality — engender an idea that there must 

 be some mysterious connexion between the two — that 

 if there were no men, there would be no Eedbreasts. 

 Trust on one side engenders confidence on the other, and 

 mutual attachment is Ijie natural result. There is some- 

 thing, too, beyond the power of explanation in the fact 

 that the Eobin is the only bird which frequents from choice 



