278 LLOYD'S NATURAL HISTORY. 



Range in Great Britain. Is found as a resident in every part of 

 the British Islands, but has not yet been met with as a breed- 

 ing bird in the Hebrides. A considerable migration of Robins 

 takes place every autumn from the Continent, and even our 

 home-bred birds shift their quarters somewhat, and a good 

 number of them leave the country. 



Range outside the British Islands. Breeds throughout Europe, 

 but is local in the south of Spain. It likewise occurs in the 

 Canaries and the Azores, and appears in a slightly modified 

 form in Teneriffe, which has been named by Dr. Koenig 

 Erithacus superb us. Its eastern breeding range extends to the 

 Ural Mountains, but the bird is here not so abundant as it is in 

 the west, and its place is taken in Persia by Erithacus hyrcanus. 



The Robin is much more of a migratory species than is 

 generally supposed, and has been met with in the Faeroes and 

 Jan Mayen, but is not yet recorded from Iceland. A letter 

 received from Mr. Robson some years ago informed us that, as 

 he was writing, swarms of Robins and Hedge-Sparrows were 

 passing through the Buyukdere Valley, near Constantinople, 

 on migration. This was in the autumn, and it is evident that 

 numbers of Robins avoid the cold in the north during winter, 

 and at such seasons the bird is found in Egypt and Palestine, 

 and as far east as Persia and Turkestan. 



Habits. The migration of the Robin, just alluded to, is to a 

 certain extent enforced, not only by the approach of the cold 

 weather, but by the habit of the old birds of driving off their 

 young ones as soon as the latter can shift for themselves. This 

 is the more remarkable because there is no bird more solici- 

 tous than the Robin in the care of its nestlings ; but it is 

 jealous of any intrusion on its own domain, and fights other 

 birds, as well as those of its own species, who dare to invade 

 it. Thus, in the autumn, young Robins are seen in numbers 

 scattered over the southern counties of England, mostly young 

 birds in the spotted dress, with a patch of red on the throat, 

 showing that the birds are moulting into their adult plumage. 

 Even before the moult is completed, the young males give 

 forth short snatches of a melancholy song, and as many as 

 half-a-dozen may be heard answering each other from different 



