RED BREAST. (jtf 



the inclemency of the season even by our fire.sides. Thomson * 

 has prettily described the annual visits of this guest ; 



The red-breast, sacred to the household gods, 

 Wisely regardful of the embroiling sky, 

 In joyless fields, and thorny thickets, leaves 

 His shivering mates, and pays to trusted man 

 His annual visit. Half afraid, he first 

 Against the window beats ; then, brisk, alights 

 On the warm earth ; then hopping o'er the floor 

 Eyes all the smiling family askance, 

 And pecks and starts, and wonders where he is : 

 'Till, more familiar grown, the table-crumbs 

 Attract his slender feet. 



The great beauty of that celebrated poet consists in his elegant 

 and just descriptions of the ceconomy of animals; and the happy 

 use he hath made of natural knowledge in descriptive poetry, shines 

 through almost every page of his Seasons. The affection this bird 

 has for mankind, is also recorded in that ancient ballad, The babes 

 in the wood; a composition of a most beautiful and pathetic 

 simplicity. It is the first trial of our humanity ; the child that 

 refrains from tears on hearing that read, gives but a bad presage 

 of the tenderness of his future sensations. 



In the spring this bird retires to breed in the thickest coverts, or 

 the most concealed holes of walls and other buildings. The eggs 

 are of a dull white, sprinkled with reddish spots. Its song is 

 remarkably fine and soft : and the more to be valued, as we enjoy 

 it the greatest part of the winter, and early in the spring, and 

 even through great part of the summer ; but its notes are part of 

 that time drowned in the general warble of the season. Many of 

 the autumnal songsters seem to be the young cock red breasts of 

 that year. 



The bill is dusky ; the forehead, chin, throat, and breasts are of 

 a deep orange.colour : the head, hind part of the neck, the back, 

 and tail, are of a deep ash-colour, tinged with green : the wings 

 rather darker ; the edges inclining to yellow ; the legs and feet 

 dusky. [Pennant. 



* In his Seasons, vide Winter, line 246, 



