i6 THE REDBREAST, OR ROBIN 



THE BLACK REDSTART 



RUTICILLA TITYS 



Upper plumage liluish grey ; bill, checks, 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 MUCH 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 tlie 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 generaUy 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 ; al)domen 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 



