52 The Redbreast. 



Family — TURDID.^. Subfamily— Tl 'RDLWF. 



The Redbreast. 



Erithacus rubeiula, LiNN. 



THE Robin breeds throughout Europe northwards to the Arctic circle, east- 

 wards across Russia to the Ural Mountains, southwards to the south of 

 Spain, the west of Northern Africa, the Canaries, Madeira and the Azores. 

 In autumn it migrates southwards to Southern Europe, the Sahara, Eg}'pt, Pales- 

 tine, Asia Minor, N.W. Turkestan and Persia. In Great Britain it is generally 

 distributed ; it has not however, hitherto, been known to breed in the Shetlands. 



Although called Redbreast the breast is rather tawu}- sienna than red. The 

 adult male has the upper parts olivaceous brown, slightly more rudd}- on the 

 crown : outer wing-coverts with the tip of the outer web buff ; primaries dark 

 ashy grey, with brownish outer webs, secondaries narrowly tipped with whitish ; 

 a frontal baud, the lores, ear-coverts, chin, throat, and breast tawn}' sienna, or 

 orange chestnut ; bell}' pure white ; flanks and under tail-coverts sand}' brownish 

 shading off into bufifish white; tail below ash}- ; bill black, feet brown, iris almost 

 black. 



The female has the frontal band, lores, and chin more smok}-, and the throat 

 of a duller, more sandy, hue excepting at the sides ; the crown of the head and 

 the bill are also broader, and the latter shorter, than in the male. 



Nestlings have all the small feathers of the upper and under surfaces spotted 

 in the centre with buff and tipped with blackish ; but birds of the j-ear differ but 

 little from their parents excepting that their colours are a little paler. 



The habits of this most confiding and fauiiliar little favourite are prett}' 

 generally known to bird lovers ; it is fond of liaunting the homes of mankind, 

 but more especially in tlic wiutcr-time, when it thereby has a chance of appeasing 

 the pangs of hunger ; but man}' pairs reuiaiu to breed in holes and corners of 

 garden, orchard or outhouse, and therefore are occasionallj' seen about one's 

 premises almost tliroughout the year. It would appear that at the pairing season 

 each male R<jbin claims, aud defends against all intruders of his own species, an 

 area sufficientlj- large to provide food for liis expected famil}', aud many arc the 

 battles which arc fought, even to the death, in the early spring. 



