REDBREAST. PASSERES. SYLVIA. 183 
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 premisses 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; thew partial migrations even being per- 
formed singly. They are widely diffused, being found 
through the greater part of Kurope; and in France and 
Holland are 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 
an Germany ; and with us Robin Redbreast. 
During the autumnal months, and in the beginning of win- 
ter, the song of the Redbreast is often heard; but such effu- 
sions seem to be the attempts of the younger birds, probably 
induced by the completion of the adult plumage, as the 
strain does not bear the strong impassioned character that 
distinguishes it during the spring, and the commencement of 
summer. 
Prats 46. Fig. 2. The male bird, of the natural size. 
Head and upper parts of the body deep oil-green, tinged General 
with yellowish-brown. Forehead, cheeks, throat, and ee cee 
breast gallstone yellow, inclining to reddish-orange, and 
margined round with smoke-grey. Belly white. Flanks 
and thighs oil-green, tinged with brown. ; 
Middle wing-coverts tipped with pale orange. Quills 
greenish.grey. Irides black. Legs and toes yellowish- 
brown. 
The breast of the female is not so bright in colour as that 
of the male; and the plumage of the young birds has 
been already noticed. 
