REDBREAST 



ROBIN ROBIN REDBREAST RUDDOCK ROBINET. 

 PLATE CVIII. 



Erythacus rubecula, . . . NEWTON. 

 Sylvia rubecula, , , . NAUMANN. 



Motacilla rubecula, . . . MONTAGU. BEWICK. 



THE Robin, as the Redbreast is familiarly termed, nests 

 very early in the spring, and the eggs are usually laid 

 about the beginning of April ; but young birds have often 

 been found in the nest by the end of March. In backward 

 seasons they are usually later. Macgillivray, writing in 

 Scotland, mentions one seen on the Qth of May 1831, and 

 another on the 2nd of June 1837, which he believed to 

 be the first brood of that year. A Robin's nest, containing 

 several eggs, was taken near York the first week in 

 February 1844, there being snow on the ground at the 

 time ; another, which had five eggs, was found at Moreton- 

 in-the-Marsh in the second week of January 1848; another, 

 with the like number of eggs, in a garden at Wheldrake, 

 near York, the loth of the same month ; and one, also with 

 eggs, near Belfast on the aoth of February 1846. A nest 

 with two eggs, on which the hen bird was sitting, was 

 found near the end of November 1851, at Gribton, Dum- 

 friesshire, the seat of Mr. Francis Maxwell. 



VOL. II. " H 



