English Robin 



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willow thickets near water, spending most of the time on the ground, along which 

 they run with ease, elevating and sometimes expanding the tail at the end of 

 each short course of running. The song of the male, usually uttered from the 

 top of a bush or dead tree, sometimes on the wing, is, according to Mr. See- 

 bohm, a fine production, resembling or combining that of a number of other 

 birds such as the Wagtail, Blackbird, and Chaffinch, and, he adds, "as he im- 

 proves in voice he sings louder and longer, until at last he almost approaches the 

 Nightingale in the richness of the melody that he pours forth. When the females 

 have arrived, there comes at the end of his song the most metallic notes I have 

 ever heard a bird utter. It is a sort of ting ting, resembling the sound produced 

 by striking a suspended bar of steel with another piece of the same metal." The 

 nest is composed of dry grasses and lined with rootlets and hair, and is usually 

 well concealed in a tussock of grass or in the side of a bank. The five or six 

 eggs are greenish or bluish olive in color. The White-throated Bluethroat 

 (C. cyanecula), which summers in central Europe, differs from the last in the 

 male having the patch on the throat white instead of rufous, or sometimes it is 

 wanting altogether; the females and young of the two species appear inseparable. 



Redbreast, or English Robin. Of all European birds perhaps none is a more 

 universal favorite than the little Redbreast, or Robin (Erithacus rubecula). A 

 little less than six inches long, it has the upper 

 parts olive-brown, the forehead, chin, throat, 

 and breast a rich orange-rufous, and the re- 

 mainder of the lower parts white; the female 

 is a little smaller and less brightly colored than 

 the male. Tame and familiar to a degree, the 

 Robin attaches himself to scenes of human 

 activities, at times, especially in winter, even 

 entering the houses in quest of crumbs. Some 

 of them, particularly the young of the year, may 

 migrate to the Mediterranean countries in winter, 

 but many always remain to brave the advent of 

 ice and snow, and it is then more especially that 

 their presence and song are most in evidence and 

 most appreciated. "Even more than beauty 

 in coloring and form is a sweet voice, and 

 here, where good singers are not few, the Robin 

 is among the best. Not only is he a fine singer, but in the almost voiceless autumn 

 season, and in winter, when the other melodists are silent, the Robin still warbles 

 his gushing, careless strain, varying his notes at every repetition, fresh and glad 

 and brilliant as in the springtime. His song, indeed, never seems so sweet and 

 impressive as in the silent and dreary season." - HUDSON. 



Rubythroats. Closely allied to the Bluethroats, but lacking the chestnut on 

 the tail and the male with the throat a brilliant scarlet instead of blue, are 

 the Rubythroats (Calliope), of which some half a dozen species are known. 

 Their habits are similar to those of their relatives, all being migratory and 



FlG. 197. Redbreast, or English 

 Robin, Erithacus rubecula. 



