﻿Beneficial to Agriculture. 31 



The well-known nest is usually built in hedges and bushes ; 

 evergreen shrubs and hawthorns are its favourite sites. Moss, 

 twigs, roots and dried grasses are the external materials generally 

 used, with a lining of fibres, hair, wool and a few feathers ; 

 green moss is freely employed in the walls of the nest. The four 

 to six eggs are torquoise-blue. 



The food consists of insects of various kinds, small worms, and 

 seeds. The Hedge-Sparrow is a very useful garden bird. 



The head and nape are ashen-grey, streaked with brown ; back 

 rufous-brown, boldly streaked with black; rump golden - olive ; 

 throat and upper breast bluish-ash, lower breast and abdomen 

 whitish ; under tail-coverts whitish-buff streaked with brown ; 

 flanks brown with blackish- brown streaks ; bill, legs and feet 

 brown. The female is less grey on the head and generally duller 

 in colour. 



BEITISH EOBIN, oe EEDBEEAST. 



Erithacus melophilus. 



This familiar favourite is probably better known than any other 

 of our native birds. It is widely distributed throughout the 

 British Islands, and breeds as far north as the Hebrides and 

 Orkney Islands. 



After the nesting season the parent birds usually drive away 

 their young, and during the autumn, when their natural food 

 becomes scarce, the older birds leave their wilder dwelling-places 

 and resort to the habitations of man, where they find an additional 

 supply of food cast from the homestead. A large number migrate 

 to this country from more northerly regions during the autumnal 

 months. 



The nest of the Eobin is ample, and is composed of dead leaves, 

 moss, and fibres, lined with hair and feathers. It is placed in any 

 suitable hole or other shelter, frequently on banks covered with 

 ivy ; and out-buildings are a favourite site. The eggs number 

 from five to seven, and are normally white, blotched and spotted 

 with pale red. They are sometimes wholly white. 



The food is chiefly insects and small worms, varied by berries 

 and fruit during the summer and autumn months, but in winter 

 the robin is omnivorous. 



The number of insects destroyed by the Eobin is far in excess 



