REDBREAST. 309 



handling these at any time, except with the greatest care, is 

 pretty sure to have the same effect. 



The Redbreast breeds early i}i spring : the nest, formed 

 of moss, dead leaves and dried grass, and thinly lined with 

 hair or a few feathers, is most frequently placed on a shel- 

 tered bank, or a short distance above the ground in a thick 

 bush, sometimes in a hole of a wall partly covered with ivy. 

 The eggs are from five to seven in number, white, speckled, 

 streaked or blotched with light red, the markings often being 

 confluent over almost the whole shell ; but some eggs are 

 quite white. They measure from "83 to '68 by from '66 

 to "56 in. Two or three broods are produced in the course 

 of the season. 



These birds exhibit great attachment to each other. 

 Neville Wood writes in the ' Naturalist ' for 1837 (ii. p. 

 105) : — " One that we caught and caged in November, 1835, 

 was for several weeks constantly attended by its mate, which 

 seems to prove that this bird pairs for life. When any one 

 approached the cage, the male departed very unwillingly, 

 and, if wholly excluded from the room in which the prisoner 

 was confined, it would utter the most unceasing and piteous 

 wailings. After some time, however, the visits became 

 gradually less frequent, and at length ceased altogether." 



With many redeeming qualities, the Redbreast is, however, 

 one of the most pugnacious among birds, and maintains its 

 right to a certain limited domain against all intruders. 



Generally diftused over the British Islands, the Redbreast 

 occurs all the year round even so far north as the Orkneys, 

 but it does not breed in the Shetlands, and has only of late 

 been found in the Outer Hebrides. According to Herr C. 

 Miiller it not rarely occurs in the Faeroes in autumn. Herr 

 Collett says that some winter in the south-west of Norway, 

 but generally it is a summer-visitant to that kingdom, breed- 

 ing as far north as lat. 67°. In Sweden it is said to be the 

 first of the Warblers to come and the last to go ; still it 

 seems not to breed further than lat. 64° N. though it occa- 

 sionally occurs beyond that limit, and the Editor was told by 

 Wollev that he had once seen one in autumn at Muonioniska 



