Redbreast. INSESSORES. ERYTHACA. 189 



leaves, with a lining of hair. The eggs are from five to 

 seven in number, and their colour is a pale yellowish-grey, 

 with numerous pale reddish-brown spots. — The young, until 

 the autumnal moult, differ greatly from their parents in plu- 

 mage ; and are of an oil-green, tinged with yellowish-brown, 

 each feather being spotted with pale reddish, or chesnut 

 brown ; and having the breast untinged with red. When 

 the chillness of the autumnal season proclaims approaching 

 winter, the greater part of the Redbreasts leave the woods, 

 and seek for shelter, and an easier supply of food, near our 

 habitations, where they soon acquire that degree of familia- 

 rity which has obtained for them the particular protection 

 of mankind. 



The natural food of this bird consists of worms (which it Food, 

 beats to death, and cleanses before eating), insects and their 

 larvae ; but in winter, and when this more congenial food 

 cannot be procured, it will subsist on crumbs of bread, or 

 any other trifling offal, which it either finds, or is supplied 

 with, in the premises to which it has attached itself. It is 

 of very bold disposition, and will not admit of the approach 

 of any other small bird to the vicinity of its nest, or to visit, 

 without attack, the precincts it has selected for its walk 

 through the winter. 



In their habits, Redbreasts are solitary birds, never asso- 

 ciating in flocks ; their partial migrations even being per- 

 formed singly. They are widely diffused, being found 

 through the greater part of Europe ; and in France and 

 Holland a'-e very abundant. 



The general familiarity and confiding manners of this spe- 

 cies have procured for it an appellation of endearment in 

 most of the countries that it inhabits ; thus, in Sweden it is 

 called Tomi Liden ; in Norway Peter Ronsmad ; Thomas 

 Gierdet in Germany ; and with us Rohin Redbreast. 



During the autumnal months, and in the beginning of 

 winter, the song of the Redbreast is often heard ; but such 

 effusions seem to be the attempts of the younger birds, pro- 

 bably induced by the completicm of the adult plumage, as 



