SYLVIADE. 79 
dark-coloured spots, and the general colour of the 
other part of the plumage is darker. 
Varieties of the Hedgesparrow are not at all un- 
common. I have two in my collection: in one the 
whole of the upper parts are a sort of buff, and all 
the rest, including the parts which are ordinarily 
slate-blue, is dirty white; the other is pied with the 
usual colour and white, nearly every other feather 
being white. 
The eggs are well known: they are of a beau- 
tiful greenish blue colour; their length about 
nine and a half lines, and breadth about six and 
a half. 
Rosin, Erythaca rubecula, “This amiable little 
songster is eaten roasted with bread-crumbs,” is the 
sentence with which a French author begins or ends 
his account of the Robin; and as to the cooking he 
may be perfectly right, but I cannot agree with him 
in the epithet ‘amiable,’ for a more ill-natured, 
pugnacious little fellow, particularly amongst those 
of his own species, I do not know. I have one in 
my aviary, and can only keep one; for though the 
aviary is of a tolerable size, and the other birds live 
there contentedly enough, the Robin will not allow 
a second one to be put in: the moment this is done 
a fight ensues; but this does not end the matter, for 
the winner sets up a system of bullying, which in- 
variably ends in the death of the other: the single 
one, however, lives contentedly enough with the 
