272 THE BIRDS OF HELIGOLAND 



here necessarily proves that both the pure forms must have also 

 been in residence in the district. Buchner further reports that 

 among the birds caught in the immediate neighbourhood of St. 

 Petersburg, males with a uniformly blue breast were not infre- 

 quently met with ; accordingly the breeding stations of Wolfs Blue- 

 throat extend from the most western to the most eastern parts of 

 Europe. 



90. Redbreast [EOTHKELCHEN]. 

 SYLVIA RUBECULA, Linn. 1 



Heligolandish : Road-bresched=.Red&reasi. 



Sylvia rubecula. Naumann, ii. 397. 



Redbreast. Dresser, ii. 329. 



Bee-fin rouge-gorge. Temminck, Manuel, i. 215, iii. 142. 



This little bird, with its large black trustful eyes, and yet at the 

 same time extraordinarily pugnacious disposition, visits Heligoland 

 in very large numbers, both in spring and autumn : often every 

 nook and corner of the island teems with them. In spring, when 

 engaged in the garden digging up one's flower-beds and the like, 

 the little fellow is excellent company, hopping about on the ground 

 around one, picking up a worm or insect here and there, and not 

 in the least disturbed by being looked at. In fact, the bird 

 seems not to heed anything that goes on around it, but confines its 

 attention entirely to the ground, differing in this respect widely 

 from the equally confiding but at the same time ever watchful 

 Bluethroat. 



This bird is amongst the small number of songsters which, by 

 means of their modest little tune, strive to beautify the spring on 

 this inhospitable rock, devoid in other respects of so many of the 

 usual charms of that season. The first individuals begin to arrive 

 very early in the spring, and during their autumn migration many 

 of them may be seen even late in November, passing through in the 

 company of the last Blackbird stragglers ; now and again, indeed, 

 one will make an attempt at wintering here. In such a case, 

 especially if there be much snow, it becomes a constant guest in the 

 poultry-yard, where it heartily enjoys the bread-crumbs intended 

 for the fowls, and soon comes to regard itself so much at home 

 there, that it even manages to keep those bold but stupid fellows, 

 the sparrows, at a respectable distance from the food-bowl. 



The Redbreast breeds throughout the whole of Europe, from the 

 Atlantic coasts of Portugal and the Hebrides to the Ural. Wolley 

 met with it in Lapland, as far as 68 N. latitude. 



1 Erithacus rubecula (Linn. ). 



