38 REDBREAST. 



Mayen, but it has not yet been recorded in Iceland, although 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. hyrcanus : a somewhat 

 larger form^ — of doubtful specific validity — with ruddier breast, and 

 chestnut margins to the upper tail-coverts. On migration the Red- 

 breast is by no means treated with the same consideration as with 

 us, being snared in large numbers for the table in the south of 

 Europe. 



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 ; while pages might be filled with details of the extra- 

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

 usually white with light reddish blotches, but sometimes they are 

 pure white : average measurements, '8 by '6 in. Nesting begins in 

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

 Its song is musical, but of little compass. 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 nestlings have 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 autumn 

 moult young birds are like the adults, except that the orange colour 

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

 Redbreast are on record. 



