38 REDBREAST. 
The Redbreast has been observed in May on the island of Jan 
Mayen, but it has not yet been recorded in Iceland, though it visits 
the Fzroes in autumn. Southwards it breeds throughout Europe 
down to the South of Spain (where it is very local), North-western 
Africa, ‘the Canaries, Madeira and the Azores; eastward, across 
Russia—where it is not abundant—to the Ural Mountains. Its 
winter migrations extend to the Sahara, Egypt, Palestine, Asia 
Minor, North-western Turkestan and Persia ; but in the last-named 
country we also find £. hyrcanus: a somewhat larger form—of 
doubtful specific validity—with ruddier breast, and chestnut margins 
to the upper tail-coverts. On migration the Redbreast is by no 
means treated with the same consideration as with us, being snared 
in large numbers for the table on the Continent, where, perhaps 
in consequence, it frequents woodlands and mountains, and is less 
familiar. 
The nest, made of dead leaves and moss, lined with hair and a 
few feathers, is placed in banks, holes of walls, amongst ivy, and in 
hollow trees; but pages might be filled with details of the extra- 
ordinary sites sometimes selected. The 5-6, often 7 eggs, are 
usually white with light reddish blotches, but sometimes they are 
pure white: measurements, *8 by ‘6 in. Nesting begins in March, 
and two, or even three broods are produced in the year. The song, 
musical but of little compass, is resumed after the moult. The 
food is mostly insects and worms, but berries and fruit are by no 
means despised, and in winter, as is well known, bread-crumbs, 
meat, &c. are acceptable. A more pugnacious and domineering 
species than the Redbreast it would be difficult to find. 
In the adult male the upper parts are olive-brown ; frontal band, 
lores, chin, throat and upper breast reddish-orange, bordered with 
bluish-grey on the sides of the neck and shoulders; lower breast 
and belly dull white; flanks and lower tail-coverts pale brown ; 
bill black ; legs and feet brown. Length 5°75 in.; wing to the end 
of the sth and longest quill 3 in. The female is usually duller 
than the male, but I have seen carefully sexed examples which were 
quite undistinguishable. The nestling—shown in the figure in the 
background—has a spotted appearance, the smaller feathers of the 
upper and under parts being yellowish-brown in their centres with 
blackish tips ; but after the first moult, in August or early Septem- 
ber, the young bird is like the adult, except that the orange-red of 
the breast is paler. Albino, grey, and mottled varieties of the 
Redbreast are on record. 
