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greyish black. This species is described and figured by Messrs. Teraminck and Schlegel in the 

 'Fauna Japonica,' p. 55, pi. xxi. b. Judging from this plate the entire upper parts are more 

 ferruginous than in E. rubecula. 



Cheerful, pert, and confiding, the Redbreast is one of the best-known and most popular of 

 our birds. Essentially a bird (if I may so term it) of the nursery, its name recalling one's earliest 

 associations, and reminding one of the tale of the babes in the wood who were covered with 

 leaves by the Redbreasts, and other nursery legends in which the Redbreast so frequently 

 reappears on the scene, it is a universal favourite with us; and even the schoolboy, when intent 

 on filling his string with eggs, will pass by and leave unmolested the nest of the Robin, while 

 other, less-sacred nests are ruthlessly pillaged. During the summer season the Redbreast 

 betakes himself to the groves and country lanes, few remaining near human habitations com- 

 pared with what are found at other seasons of the year, though almost every garden can boast 

 of a pair which have taken up their summer quarters in it or its immediate neighbourhood. So 

 soon, however, as the winter sets in and food becomes scarce, the Redbreast visits the vicinity 

 of human habitations, where he finds a more ample supply of food than can be met with in the 

 fields or woods ; and his confiding habits and sprightly appearance always ensure him a hearty 

 welcome and a share of the scraps and crumbs which are thrown out or which are placed for him 

 on the window-sill. One particular Redbreast will generally attach himself to the gardener, 

 follow him about when at work, and, when he is turning over the soil, will watch for the worms 

 as turned up ; or when the gardener sticks his spade into the ground to take a rest, it will perch 

 on the handle and carol forth its sweet song, or else it sits with feathers puffed out watching 

 with curious askant gaze, as if waiting for another chance of picking up a worm. Though, as 

 before stated, the majority of the Redbreasts are scattered over the country during the breeding- 

 season, yet many remain and build in the immediate vicinity of a house, or in the outbuildings 

 adjoining it; and many are the instances on record of the peculiar localities selected for the 

 purposes of nidification. The Rev. F. O. Morris records some curious positions in which nests 

 of the Redbreast have been found, as for instance one being the hole left by a knot in one of 

 the timbers of a ship under repair ; and even during the deafening sound of the driving of the 

 trenails the birds did not forsake. Bishop Stanley gives an instance of one building in a pigeon- 

 hole bookshelf in a school which was constantly frequented by seventy children ; another pair 

 affixed their nest to the church bible in the parish church of Hampton, in Warwickshire ; and a 

 similar instance occurred at Collingbourne-Kingston church, in Wiltshire. I have seen nests in 

 a flower-pot placed away on the tool-house shelf, in an old jug, in a cast-off old shoe placed in a 

 corner of an outhouse, in a letter-box, and in the upper part of a pump which was seldom used. 

 Mr. Jesse gives the following instances of the pertinacious familiarity of the Redbreast, and of 

 its love for its young, which I think well worth transcribing. A Robin, he writes, " lately began 

 its nest in a myrtle which was placed in the hall of a house belonging to a friend of mine in 

 Hampshire. As the situation was considered rather an objectionable one, the nest was removed. 

 The bird then began to build another on the cornice of the drawing-room ; but as this was a still 

 more violent intrusion, it was not allowed to be completed. The Robin, thus baffled in two 

 attempts, began a third nest in a new shoe, which was placed on a shelf in my friend's drawing-' 

 room. It was permitted to go on with its work until the nest was completed ; but as the new 



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