84 Notice regarding the Red-breast. 



even when taken full grown, at the beginning of winter, the 

 red-breast supports captivity, and sings soon after being de- 

 prived of liberty. 



Though insects, larvae and worms, be the chief food of the 

 red-breast, yet, at the close of the season, it feeds on berries 

 and seeds ; and when the approach of winter brings it to 

 the dwellings of men, crumbs of bread, &c. are eaten readily. 

 One severe winter, some years ago, we picked up a poor robin 

 battered down by sleet, and almost exhausted, and fed it se- 

 veral weeks in a green-house on crumbs of bread ; and for 

 several years a pensioner has come annually to our window, 

 to feed upon the crumbs which are daily laid out by the 

 children for his use. Whether this be always the same indi- 

 vidual we are not aware ; but his acquaintance with the loca- 

 lity, and his confidence in letting it be known when he is pre- 

 sent, renders this probable. His pugnacious disposition and 

 his boldness enable him to put to flight the crowds of spar- 

 rows which the crumbs attract to the same place. 



Our correspondent's remarks upon the female red-breast 

 we are afraid are not correct. The difference between the 

 sexes is so little striking, as not likely to be noticed by an un- 

 practised eye. " The cock may be known by his breast being 

 of a deeper red, and the red going further upon the head," 

 says Willughby ; and Vieillot remarks that the female differs 

 little from the male, — the orange-red in the former only inclin- 

 ing a little more to the yellow, and descending less on the 

 breast. What our correspondent has taken for the female red- 

 breast, is more likely to have been a young bird of the year, 

 under the guidance of its parent — for the young do not take 

 their proper colour till after moulting. Before this their 

 plumage is generally brown, spotted with dull red. The red- 

 breast, it may be remarked, is the first bird heard in the morn- 

 ing, and the last that is seen after the setting of the sun. 



