PASSFRES. 



HEDBREAST. 



305 



SYLVIID.'h:. 





^^;>^ 



'^ V 



Erithacus RUBECUt^ (Liiiiifeus * ) . 



THE REDBREAST. 



Erytliaca ruhecula. 



Erithacus, G. Cuv{e7-f. — Bill narrow and depressed at the base, inflected 

 towards the point, the upper mandible slightly notched. Nostrils basal, lateral 

 and oval. Wings rounded ; the first quill only half as long as the second, which 

 is shorter than the third ; the fourth, fifth and sixth, nearly equal and longest. 

 Legs long and slender ; the tarsi with a single scale in front ; the outer toe a 

 little longer than the inner, and united at its base to the middle ; the hind toe 

 longer and stronger than the others. Plumage generally soft. 



The Redbreast is so generally distributed over the British 

 Islands, and, mixed up as it is with our earliest associations, 

 is so universal a favourite, that all are sufficiently interested 



• Motacilla ruhecula, Linnseus, Syst. Nat. Ed. 12, i. p. 3-37 (171)6). 

 t Lemons d'Anatomie Compar^e, tab. ii. (1800). 

 VOL. I. R R 



