262 BRITISH BIRDS. 



ERITHACUS RUBECULA. 

 THE ROBIN. 



(PLATE 9.) 



Ficedula rubecula, Eriss. Orn. iii. p. 418 (1760;. 



Motacilla rubecula, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 337 (1766) ; et auctomm plurimorum 



(Scopoli), ( Temminck), ( Gould), ( Gray), (Heuyliri), (Salvadori), (Newton), (Shelley), 



(Dresser), (Irby), (Blanford), &c. 



Sylvia rubecula (Linn.), Scop. Ann. I. Hist. Nat. i. p. 156 (1769). 

 Curruca rubecola (Linn.), Leach, Syst. Cat. Mamm. $c. Brit. Mus. p. 25 (1816). 

 Curruca rubecula (Linn.), Forst. Syn. Cat. Brit. B. p. 54 (1817). 

 Ficedula rubecula (Linn), Boie, Isis, 1822, p. 553. 

 Dandalus rubecula (Linn.), Boie, Isis, 1826, p. 972. 



Erythacus rubecula (Linn.), Sivains. Faun. Bor.-Amer., Birds, p. 488 (1831). 

 Rubecula farniliaris, Blyth, Field Naturalist, i. p. 424 (1833). 

 Rhondella rubecula (Linn.), Rennie, White's Selborne, p. 437 (1833). 

 Lusciola rubecula (Linn.), Keys. u. Bias. Wirb. Eur. pp. Iviii, 191 (1840). 

 Rubecula rubecula (Linn.), Bonap. Consp. i. p. 295 (1850). 

 Luscim'a rubecula (Linn.), Sundev. Sv. FogL p. 56 (1856). 



The Robin, so closely associated with all our earliest recollections of the 

 bird- world, the ever-trustful, pert, and lively little favourite and companion 

 of man, is welcome everywhere, protected and encouraged; and hence its 

 distribution is a wide one, and its numbers as large as its popularity is 

 universal. Wherever man's abode may be, if only surrounded by trees 

 and shrubs, even a garden alone, the Robin is almost surely found. 

 Throughout Great Britain and Ireland it is everywhere a well-known bird 

 in those localities where there is sufficient cover. The Robin, like the 

 Sparrow, is a close attendant on cultivation and improvement. Formerly 

 it was a rare bird on the wild and desolate Hebrides ; but now it is com- 

 paratively common, as improvement and the planting of trees and shrubs 

 have increased. It breeds as far north as the Orkneys, but has not yet 

 been known to do so on the Shetlands, and only rarely occurs on the 

 Faroes in the autumn. The Robin breeds throughout Europe as far 

 north as the Arctic circle, rarely beyond ; but becomes of far less frequent 

 occurrence in Russia, and is not known to breed east of the Ural Moun- 

 tains. Southwards its breeding-range extends to many parts of western 

 North Africa, the Canaries, Madeira, and the eastern and central group of 

 the Azores. 



In those districts where the winters are severe, it migrates southwards in 

 autumn to South Europe, North Africa, Palestine, and the cultivated 

 districts of North-west Turkestan. It is said to be a resident, though 

 rare, in South Persia. 



The Robin has one very near ally, the Persian Robin (Erithacus hyr- 

 canus) , inhabiting the forests of the southern shores of the Caspian, west- 



