SYLVIADJE. 79 



dark-coloured spots, and the general colour of the 

 other part of the plumage is darker. 



Varieties of the Hedgesparrow are not at all un- 

 common. I have two in my collection : in one the 

 whole of the upper parts are a sort of buff, and all 

 the rest, including the parts which are ordinarily 

 slate-blue, is dirty white ; the other is pied with the 

 usual colour and white, nearly every other feather 

 being white. 



The eggs are well known: they are of a beau- 

 tiful greenish blue colour; their length about 

 nine and a half lines, and breadth about six and 

 a half. 



ROBIN, Erythaca rubecula. " This amiable little 

 songster is eaten roasted with bread-crumbs," is the 

 sentence with which a French author begins or ends 

 his account of the Robin ; and as to the cooking he 

 may be perfectly right, but I cannot agree with him 

 in the epithet " amiable," for a more ill-natured, 

 pugnacious little fellow, particularly amongst those 

 of his own species, I do not know. I have one in 

 my aviary, and can only keep one ; for though the 

 aviary is of a tolerable size, and the other birds live 

 there contentedly enough, the Robin will not allow 

 a second one to be put in : the moment this is done 

 a fight ensues ; but this does not end the matter, for 

 the winner sets up a system of bullying, which in- 

 variably ends in the death of the other : the single 

 one, however, lives contentedly enough with the 



