38 REDBREAST. 



The Redbreast has been observed in May on the island of Jan 

 Mayen, but it has not yet been recorded in Iceland, though it visits 

 the Faeroes in autumn. Southwards it breeds throughout Europe 

 down to the South of Spain (where it is very local), North-western 

 Africa, the Canaries, Madeira and the Azores ; eastward, across 

 Russia — where it is not abundant — to the Ural Mountains. Its 

 winter migrations extend to the Sahara, Egypt, Palestine, Asia 

 Minor, North-western Turkestan and Persia ; but in the last-named 

 country we also find E. hyrcajius : a somewhat larger form — of 

 doubtful specific validity — with ruddier breast, and chestnut margins 

 to the upper tail-coverts. On migration the Redbreast is by no 

 means treated with the same consideration as with us, being snared 

 in large numbers for the table on the Continent, where, perhaps 

 in consequence, it frequents woodlands and mountains, and is less 

 familiar. 



The nest, made of dead leaves and moss, lined with hair and a 

 few feathers, is placed in banks, holes of walls, amongst ivy, and in 

 hollow trees ; but pages might be filled with details of the extra- 

 ordinary sites sometimes selected. The 5-6, often 7 eggs, are 

 usually white with light reddish blotches, but sometimes they are 

 pure white : measurements, "8 by "6 in. Nesting begins in March, 

 and two, or even three broods are produced in the year. The song, 

 musical but of little compass, is resumed after the moult. The 

 food is mostly insects and worms, but berries and fruit are by no 

 means despised, and in winter, as is well known, bread-crumbs, 

 meat, &c. are acceptable. A more pugnacious and domineering 

 species than the Redbreast it would be difficult to find. 



In the adult male the upper parts are olive-brown ; frontal band, 

 lores, chin, throat and upper breast reddish-orange, bordered with 

 bluish-grey on the sides of the neck and shoulders ; lower breast 

 and belly dull white ; flanks and lower tail-coverts pale brown ; 

 bill black ; legs and feet brown. Length 575 in. ; wing to the end 

 of the 5th and longest quill 3 in. The female is usually duller 

 than the male, but I have seen carefully sexed examples which were 

 quite undistinguishable. The nesding — shown in the figure in the 

 background — has a spotted appearance, the smaller feathers of the 

 upper and under parts being yellowish-brown in their centres with 

 blackish tips ; but after the first moult, in August or early Septem- 

 ber, the young bird is like the adult, except that the orange-red of 

 the breast is paler. Albino, grey, and mottled varieties of the 

 Redbreast are on record. 



