16 THE REDBREAST, OR ROBIM 
THE BLACK REDSTART 
RUTICILLA TITYS 
Upper plumage bluish grey; bill, cheeks, throat, and breast, black, passing 
into bluish beneath ; tail as in the last ; greater wing-coverts edged with 
pure white; second primary equal to the seventh. Female—upper 
plumage duller; lower bright ash, passing into white; wings dusky, 
edged with grey; red of the tail less bright. Length, five inches and 
three quarters. Eggs pure shining white. 
A MucnH less frequent visitor to this country than the preceding, 
but by no means ranking among our rarest birds, specimens occur- 
ring in the winter of every year in some part of England or another, 
especially in Devon and Cornwall. Its habits are much the same 
as those of its congener ; but it generally chooses a loftier situation 
for its nest, which is placed in the walls of buildings, at an eleva- 
tion varying from a few feet to eighty or ninety. Its plumage 
differs in being much darker in the fore part of the body, while the 
tail is of a brighter red. The eggs are white. It generally arrives 
in England about the first week in November, and remains with us 
all the winter. Its nest has never been found in this country. 
THE REDBREAST, OR ROBIN 
ERITHACUS RUBECULA 
Upper parts brownish 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 
grey surrounding 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, with- 
out 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 Redbreasts. Trust on one side engenders confidence 
on the other, and mutual attachment is the natural result. There 
is something, too, beyond the power of explanation in the fact 
that the Robin is the only bird which frequents from choice the 
homes of men. 
The habits of the Redbreast are so well known, that to describe 
them would be simply to write down what every one has seen or 
may see. 
It generally builds its nest in a hole, near the bottom of a hedge 
or under the stump of a tree, in an ivy-clad wall, or amidst the 
