276 ALLEN'S NATURALIST'S LIBRARY. 



The favourite resort of the Nightingale for nesting purposes 

 is the tangled bushes which clothe a lane leading along the 

 outside of a wood, and in such places the bird may occasionally 

 be seen flitting across the road or hopping out of its dense retreat 

 to pick up some insect. On these occasions its ways recall the 

 actions of a Robin, in which bird the Nightingale undoubtedly 

 finds a very close ally. It is almost entirely a ground-feeder, 

 and picks up worms, ants, and other insects and larvae, while 

 the young are said to be fed entirely on caterpillars. In 

 autumn it feeds on fruit and berries like the Warblers. 



Nest. This is very characteristic, being formed principally 

 of dead leaves and grass, which give the outside a somewhat 

 ragged appearance, the inside, however, being more neatly 

 finished off, rather deep, and lined with grasses or rootlets and 

 occasionally with horsehair. 



Eggs. Four or five in number, rarely six. Ground-colour 

 olive-brown or olive-green, occasionally dull bluish-green. The 

 olive-brown eggs appear perfectly uniform, but in the green 

 type of eggs there is generally some olive-brown clouding the 

 larger end, or forming a dense ring of brown spots. Occasion- 

 ally the eggs are of a deep bright blue colour. Axis, 0-8-0-9 

 inch ; diam., 0-6-0-65. (Plate xxix., fig. 6.) 



THE REDBREASTS. GENUS ERITHACUS. 

 Erithacus, Cuv., Lemons Anat. Comp., tab. ii. (1801). 



Type, E. rutecula (Linn.). 



The Robins are miniature Thrushes, having the spotted 

 young which prove them to be members of the family Tur- 

 didce. The brighter coloration of the birds has something to 

 do with their separation as a distinct genus from the Thrushes 

 on the one hand and the Redstarts on the other. The type of 

 egg of the Robins, however, is different from that of any of the 

 allied genera, whilst the similarity of the colour of the sexes 

 separates them from the Redstarts, and allies them to the 

 Thrushes and Nightingales. According to the divisions of the 

 Turdidce recently proposed by Mr. Oates, in his " Fauna of 

 British India," the Redbreasts would come within his definition 

 of the RuticillincR (p. 81) and would come near to the genus 



