748 



SYLVIA 



part upon wild berries, seeds, "and other vegetable 

 matters. Indeed, at that season they are very mis- 

 cellaneous in their feeding, and pick up all sorts of 

 scraps, both animal and vegetable. They are all so- 

 litary birds, never appearing in flocks, even in the 

 most severe weather, when almost all the smaller 

 birds are not . only social in their own species, but 

 mingle freely with others, without the slightest signs 

 of hostility. The members of this genus, on the other 

 hand, are never seen even two in company, for though 

 several may be seen near to each other, there is never 

 the slightest indication of any concerted movement 

 or recognition of the one by the other. Even when 

 they pair, they are strictly cryptogamous, for the pair 

 are not seen together. They nestle in holes of 

 trees or of walls ; and at that season they are not 

 much seen even in the places where many of them 

 nestle. When seen, they are generally skulking about 

 among the trees ; and even the song of such as breed 

 in the woods is but very rarely heard there. But 

 though they are thus solitary in their habits, as regards 

 their own species, and indeed all other birds, they are 

 by no means timid or retiring at those times when 

 the. purposes of nature do not call them to the depth 

 of the forests. On the contrary, such of them as 

 winter where the season is severe, are among the 

 most familiar of birds, and not only approach houses, 

 but do not hesitate to enter them with a boldness dis- 

 played by very few birds. Even in the breeding 

 season, their skulking appears to have much more re- 

 ference to the finding of food, than to any timidity or 

 alarm ; for though they move about and are careful 

 enough 'to be out of the way of danger, yet they 

 never become agitated, or fly off to any great distance, 

 they merely shift about so as to get the screen of the 

 tree, or other cover, between them and that by which 

 they happen to be disturbed. They are also of a 

 bold and pugnaciousMisposition, and when in a state 

 of confinement they attack and vanquish birds larger 

 than themselves. Their songs are not so varied and 

 melodious, or given in such volume and with so much 

 energy, as those of some others of the family ; but they 

 are in general sweet, and the resident ones, which 

 quit the woods in the winter and resort to the vicinity 

 of houses, sing after their arrival and again before 

 their departure, or if the season is mild and open 

 they sing occasionally throughout the whole of it. 

 When they sing, however, they never come quite 

 close to houses, or attempt to enter them, for the 

 same severity of the weather which drives them to 

 this familiarity, renders them perfectly silent. The 

 species which Cuvier has included in the genus, dif- 

 fer a good deal in their external appearance, espe- 

 cially in their colour ; but there does not appear to be 

 any difference sufficient for warranting the further 

 division of them into genera, though that has been 

 attempted by some of them who are in more than an 

 ordinary degree system-smitten. 



Redbreast (S. rubicola). In the late autumn, the 

 winter, and the early spring, this is one of the best- 

 known of birds, and almost every one knows it, with- 

 out requiring any description ; but in summer its 

 habits are much more obscure, so that doubts have 

 been started whether it is or is not a migrant. That 

 it does change its ground with the seasons is true ; 

 but then it is only a little way, namely, from the 

 close vicinity of the house to the nearest copse. 

 Some indeed may shift from the cold districts to the 

 warm when, the cold weather sets in ; but there is 



no reason to suppose that any of them take long 1 

 journeys, and especially that they pass beyond sea. 

 They are at all times birds of short flight, and very 

 rarely seen upon the wing unless in shifting from tree 

 to tree, or between a tree and the ground. 



Although, when they are driven to extremities by 

 the severity of the weather, the redbreasts are the 

 most familiar of birds, yet they have the solitary ha- 

 bits of the genus perhaps more strongly than any of 

 the other species. When they are upon the breed- 

 ing grounds they are very jealous of each other, and 

 if one happens to approach too near the domicile of 

 another, a battle is the result. Even the young of 

 the year, when they come to the neighbourhood of 

 houses, do not come in society ; and it is said that 

 two birds of different broods never perch on the 

 same tree, though this is obviously a point which it 

 is difficult, and even impossible, to ascertain with any 

 thing like certainty. 



Unless it be in seasons of uncommon severity, or 

 in climates where the winter is very prolonged, the 

 redbreast quits the vicinity of human abodes, and 

 betakes itself to the woods, sometime in the month 

 of March. It does not depart, however, until there 

 is some action of the spring in the places to which it 

 retires ; and if the storm returns with severity, the 

 redbreast comes back along with it. It prefers those 

 places of the woods and copses which are humid, or 

 near marshy grounds, because these abound much in 

 insects and in earth worms, which are the true staple 

 articles of its summer food. The nest is always upon 

 or near the ground, under natural cover if possible ; 

 and when this cannot be had close enough, the bird 

 is said to make an artificial concealment with withered 

 leaves. This is what is alluded to in the old ballad 

 of " The Babes of the Wood," though there the bird 

 is represented as covering not its own nest but the 

 bodies of the deserted children; an office which, of 

 course, it would not perform. A hole in the ground, 

 or in a wall, is sometimes had recourse to, when the 

 cover of trees or bushes cannot be had near the sur- 

 face of the ground. The nest is formed of dry grass 

 and withered leaves, and finished in the inside with 

 finer vegetable substances and feathers. The eggs, 

 which are of a dull whitish colour, marked with 

 waved lines and spots of ash and rust colours, vary 

 from four to seven in number. During incubation 

 the male sings, but by no means loudly or so as 

 to be heard at any great distance from the nest, so 

 that his pleasant though feeble notes are drowned by 

 the more tuneful voices of the grove, which are at 

 this time pealing in full orchestra. As is the case 

 with all the fine-billed birds, the young are in the 

 nest for a considerable time ; and the parents are 

 very assiduous in feeding them. 



Their food, and indeed that of the whole genus, 

 is not the same in the breeding season as that of the 

 genus Curruca, or the true warbler. These last do 

 not of course refuse full grown insects if they can get 

 them ; but they do not regularly hawk for such on 

 the wing, their food consisting much more generally 

 of caterpillars. The robin preys much more upon 

 the full grown insects when they are beating about 

 to find among the leaves suitable places for deposit- 

 ing their eggs. In this way, the good which the 

 birds of this genus, and especially of this widely dis- 

 tributed species, do to the woods and copses is very 

 great ; for the capture of one parent insect ready to 

 deposit her eggs may be reckoned equal to the cap- 



