EEDBEEAST. 15 



It is a constant resident throughout the year in all the 

 more temperate and warmer parts of Europe Saxony, Spain, 

 Italy, and Holland; visiting Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, 

 in the summer. In the northern parts of Africa, it is also 

 known. In Asia, H. E. Strickland, Esq. has seen it in Asia 

 Minor; and Keith Abbot, Esq. in Persia. 



With us it is universally distributed in the three kingdoms; 

 and even in the depth of the most lonely wood you are 

 sometimes almost startled by the suddenness with which an 

 unexpected Robin will make his appearance on some neigh- 

 bouring branch. In Shetland it occasionally occurs, and in 

 Orkney, though not very numerous, it is seen throughout 

 the year; and also even in the bare islands of the outer 

 Hebrides. 



The Redbreast remains with us throughout the year, unless 

 indeed it be a contradiction of this statement, that some are 

 supposed to migrate hither from more northern parts in the 

 winter: they are believed to perform their migrations singly. 

 In summer they for the most part, but by no means universally, 

 remove from that more close propinquity to human habitations 

 which in winter they had sought, to a greater distance, where 

 retirement is to be better gained. Numbers have been known 

 to alight on a vessel in the Mediterranean, and apparently 

 much fatigued with their journey to and from its opposite 

 shores. The same Robin generally frequents the same haunt, 

 and it is probably his jealousy of any interference with his 

 prerogative, that makes him so ready to attack any trespasser, 

 though of his own kith and kindred, that ventures within 

 the bounds of his domain he desires to be like Robinson 

 Crusoe, 'Monarch of all he surveys/ 



In severe weather many fall victims to the exterminating 

 effects of hunger and cold. The female bird is very attentive 

 to the charge of her nest, and has often been known to allow 

 herself to be taken in the hand without deserting it. One 

 has been taken on the nest and placed with it in a cage, 

 where she continued to sit; and another, though taken off 

 the nest six times in a single day, and even detained in a 

 cage for a few minutes, returned to her charge when set at 

 liberty, and successfully hatched her eggs. 



As one proof, 'unum e multis,' of the pugnacious disposition 

 of the Robin, for which he is indeed noted, Mr. George B. 

 Clarke has sent me the following anecdote, since recorded in 

 'The Naturalist/ volume i, page 45: 'I thought I would try 



