THE REDBREASTS. 277 



Tarstger. The uniformity of colouring of both sexes is one of 

 the chief characteristics of the genus Erithacus. The bill is 

 plentifully beset with bristles, and the first primary is large, 

 being nearly half the length of the second. 



I. THE COMMON REDBREAST. ERITHACUS RUBECULA. 



Motacilla rubecula^ Linn., Syst. Nat, i., p. 337 (1766). 

 Erithacus rubecula, Macg., Br. B., ii., p. 263 (1839) ; Newt, 



Br. B., i., p. 305 (1872) ; Dresser, B. Eur., ii., p. 329, pi. 



51 (1873); Seeb., Cat B. Brit. Mus., v., p. 299 (1881); 



id. Br. B., i., p. 262 (1883) ; B. O. U. List Br. B., p. 10 



(1883); Saunders, Man., p. 37 (1889); Lilford, Col. Fig. 



Br. B., pt. xxii. (1892) ; Wyatt, Br. B., pi. 3, fig. 2 (1894). 

 Adult Male. General colour dark olive-brown, with a slight 

 greyish shade, the wing-coverts like the back, with pale ochreous- 

 buff tips to the greater series ; primary-coverts, quills, and tail- 

 feathers dark brown, edged with olive ; crown of head like the 

 back ; base of forehead and lores orange-rufous, extending over 

 the eye ; cheeks, throat, and chest also bright orange-rufous, 

 with a broad shading of bluish-grey reaching from behind the 

 eye and skirting the orange of the throat down the sides of the 

 neck to the sides of the upper breast, which are also bluish- 

 grey ; centre of breast and abdomen dull white, the flanks 

 light olive-brown ; thighs darker olive ; under wing-coverts and 

 axillaries yellowish-buff, with ashy bases ; quills dusky brown 

 below, ochreous along the inner web ; bill dark brown, lighter 

 at the base ; legs brown ; iris very dark brown. Total length 

 6 inches ; culmen, 0-5 ; wing, 3'! ; tail, 2*4; tarsus, IT. 



Adult Female. Similar to the male. Total length, 6 inches; 

 wing, 2-85. 



Young. Ochreous-brown, the feathers centred with ochreous- 

 buff, and mottled with blackish tips to the feathers, the wing- 

 coverts all plainly centred with ochreous-bufT; underneath, 

 ochreous-buff, paler on the throat and abdomen, the feathers 

 of the breast and sides of the body edged with dusky brown. 



After the autumn moult the young birds resemble the adults, 

 but can always be recognised by golden-buff tips to the median 

 wing-coverts, forming a band which lasts even to the following 

 spring. 



