REDBREAST. 
61 
As soon as the young birds can fly tliey are brought out 
by the parents to seek for food, and sit upon the lowest 
branches of a bush, or shrub, while their meal is sought for. 
Thus in gardens they often fall a prey to the rapacious cat. 
The young birds, in their nestling plumage, are very little 
like the parents, except in their actions, which cannot be 
mistaken. Their upper plumage is dark brown, with the 
feathers tipped and bordered with pale buff; the breast 
yellowish-brown, mottled with a darker colour. With the 
first tinge of red upon his breast the young male begins to 
sing; we have often seen him in this state, with his whitish 
throat a little patched with a few red feathers, sit and sing in 
fitful snatches, as if surprised at his own newly-acquired 
powers. 
The entire length of the Redbreast is six inches. The 
beak is four lines from the feathers of the forehead to the tip, 
and eight and a half from the gape. The wing, from the 
carpus to the tip, is three inches eleven lines. The first 
quill-feather is about an inch in length, the second two inches, 
the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth are nearly equal in length, 
and exceed the second by about four lines. The tail is 
square, the feathers two and a quarter inches in length, and 
extending an inch and a quarter beyond the closed wings. 
The tarsus is one inch in length, the front plate or scale un¬ 
divided or entire from the ankle to the knee : the tibia mea¬ 
sures an inch and a quarter, the thigh bone about an inch, 
the middle toe and nail, nine lines. The legs and feet are 
slender, the claws narrow but blunt. 
In the adult male the breast is bright rush colour; the 
same colour extends in a band, from two to three lines in 
width, across the forehead, surrounds the eyes and extends 
over part of the coverts of the ears. This rufous mask is 
entirely encircled by a band of clear smoke-grey, from three 
to four lines in wudth, except on the lower part of the body, 
VOL. II. 
F 
