214 The Redbreast. 



redstart is not unfair, but it was surely unnecessary 

 in turn to compare the redstart as a songster with 

 the nightingale, as he does in his description of 

 that bird, which is as follows : 



Ce Rossignol est nomme de inuraille 

 Pource qu'es murs il bastit sa maison, 

 Fait ses petits : mais en comparaison 

 Au Rossignol, il ne dit rein qui vaille. 



Its name, perhaps, caused the invidious com- 

 parison, though all three birds, in fact, belong to 

 the same family. 



Many people prize the redbreast as a cage bird 

 not only for its song, though it is a free singer in 

 confinement, but also for its tatneness and friendly 

 ways, and with proper attention it will thrive 

 in captivity and live for years, though like all " soft 

 meat" birds it requires very great care in feeding. 

 Frank Buckland stated that Londoners were parti- 

 cularly fond of robins as pets, but we cannot vouch 

 for this. Its pugnacity, however, is so great that 

 it cannot be kept successfully with other birds, and 

 is therefore not often found in aviaries. So pug- 

 nacious, indeed, is it, that it will not allow another 

 bird of its own species its mate always excepted 

 to intrude upon the space which it considers its own 

 domain, and will even endeavour to drive off other 

 small birds. 



One of the redbreast's peculiarities is its love of 

 human society, and this is curiously exemplified in 

 the case of those birds that live in woods and other 

 solitary places, as they invariably find out and 



