CAGE AND SINGING BIRDS 
57 
seems to suit them very well. Wherever they are, warmth 
is a great desideratum for these lively and interesting little 
birds, which are melodious although winter songsters, capital 
fly-catcherS; and the sprightliest creatures in existence. It 
is well to give them a lump of fresh earth once a week 
to pick about. 
THE REDBREAST. 
This is another very common bird, which we need n 
trouble ourselves to describe, for old and young, rich ana 
poor, are alike familiar with the robin, — "the household 
bird with the red stomacher." This is one of the 
birds which does not properly belong to the warbler 
genus, although called by some naturalists sylvia rtihicula. 
It is so tame and familiar a bird, even in its wild state, that 
few care to keep it in confinement. It comes and goes in 
and out of the house as it pleases, and sings its native wood 
notes wild, and feeds close to our doors and windows without 
fear or suspicion. We can hear its sweet and well sustained 
warble almost whenever we please, be it summer or winter, 
without the trouble of rearing it ; and see its little compact 
form and crimson breast any day of the year^ without the 
necessity for shutting it up in a cage or aviary. Let it go 
abroad and enjoy itself with its feathered congeners ; let it 
make love, and fight, as it will be pretty sure to do, for a 
pugnacious fellow is Bobby 5 let him make a feast of insects, 
or earthworms, or berries of some sort, when he can get 
these dainties, and when he cannot, let him come to you and 
be fed with crumbs, and the refuse of your table ; let him 
and his plump little bride build a loose nest of lichens, and 
lining it w\i\i fine grass, hair, or feathers, place it in some 
snug out-of-the-way hole or corner on the ground, may be 
in a deserted mole-hill, or rabbit burrow, or under a heap of 
stones, or among tangled roots, and then, in due course, if 
you peep in cautiously, you may see four, five, six, or seven 
tiny eggs, of a yellowish white colour, spotted and striped 
with orange, and tinged with light brown at the thick end. 
By and by these will be gone, and you may count in the 
place of them as many little moving lumps of yellow down, 
that keep opening their beaks and crying " give ! give ! " as 
plain as they can speak. When these are more fully fledged 
