THE HEDGE SPAREOW. 95 



before liis brother warblers have arrived from the south, he 

 has chosen his mate, built his snug nest, and too probably 

 commenced a second ; for unsuspicious in nature, he does 

 not retire to solitary places for this purpose, and^the leafless 

 hedges but ill conceal his labours from the peering eyes of 

 all-destroying ploughboys. Such are nearly all his " short 

 and simple annals." He quarrels with no one, he achieves 

 no distinction, throwing no one into ecstasies with his song, 

 and stealing no one's fruit ; unobtrusive and innocent, he 

 claims no notice, and dreads no resentment ; and so, through 

 all the even tenor of his way, he is, without knowing it, the 

 favourite of children, and of all the good and gentle. 



THE EEDBEEAST. 



ERYTHACA RUBECULA. 



Upper parts brownisli grey tinged with olive; forehead, lore, and breast red, 

 the red edged with ash-grey ; abdomen white. Female like the male, except 

 that the upper parts are ash-brown, the red less bright, and the gi'ey sur- 

 rounding it less conspicuous. Length, five inches and three quarters. Eggs 

 yellowish white, spotted with light reddish brown. 



The Redbreast is everywhere invested with a kind of 

 sanctity beyond all other birds. Its wonted habit of 

 making its appearance, no one knows whence, to greet 

 the resting traveller in places the most lonely — its evident 

 predilection for the society of the out-of-door labourer, 

 whatever his occupation — the constancy with which it 

 affects human habitations — and the readiness with which, 

 without coaxing, or taming, or training, it throws itself 

 on human hospitality — engender an idea that there must 

 be some mysterious connexion between the two — that 

 if there were no men, there would be no Eedbreasts. 

 Trust on one side engenders confidence on the other, and 

 mutual attachment is the natural result. There is some- 

 thing, too, beyond the power of explanation in the fact 

 that the Eobin is the only bird which frequents fiom choice 



