REDBREAST. 403 
terised. Bill very long, slender, weak, depressed in all its length ; the 
joint flexible, curved upwards ; upper mandible furrowed on its sur- 
face ; under mandible furrowed on the sides ; nostrils on the surface 
of the bill, long and linear ; legs long and slender ; three toes before, 
hind toe almost wanting, and jointed high upon the shank ; the fore 
toes re-united as far as the second joint by a membrane ; wings acu- 
minated, the first quill being the longest. * 
RED-BACKED SHRIKE. — -A name for the Flusher. 
REDBREAST (^Sylvia ruhecula, Latham.) 
Sylvia rubecula, Lath. Ind. Orn. 2. p. 520. sp. 42 Flem. Br. Anim. p. 68. — AIo- 
tacilla rubecula, Linn. Syst. 1. p. 337. 45 — Gmel. Syst. 2. p. 993. — Raii, Syn. 
p. 78. A, 3. — Will. p. 160. t. 37. — Briss. 3. p. 418. t. 21. — Rouge-Gorge, Buff. 
Ois. 5. p. 196. t. 11 Ib. pi. Enl. 361. — Bec-fin Rouge-Gorge, Temm. Man. 
d’Orn. 1. p. 215. — Rothburstiger Sanger, Meyer, Tasscbenb. Deut. 1. p. 238. 
— Frisch, Vbg. t. 19. f. 1. — Redbreast, Br. Zool. No. 147. — Arct. Zool. 2. p. 
417. D — Lewin’s Br. Birds, 3. t. 107. — Lath. Syn. 4. p. 442. 38. — Mont. Orn. 
Diet. — Wale. Syn. 2. t. 238. — Pult. Cat. Dorset, p. 9 Bewick’s Br. Birds, 1, 
p, t. 204. — Low’s Fauna Oread, p, 69. — Selby, pi. 46. fig. 2. p. 181. 
This well-known species of warbler needs little description. The 
upper parts are of a yellowish brown, tinged with ash colour ; forehead 
and from chin to breast of a deep rufous orange ; belly and vent whitish ; 
the plumage of both sexes are alike ; the nestling-feathers of young 
birds are spotted ; and they do not possess the red on the breast for 
two or three months after they leave the nest. 
It is said to be a migrative species, but from no other reason than 
their more frequent and numerous appearance about our habitations in 
the winter, when the woods and fields are destitute of insects ; it is then 
they seek the protection of man, and are so tame as to enter doors and 
windows, and pick up the crumbs fallen from the table ; here they too 
frequently fall a sacrifice to the watchful cat. 
* The Redbreast,” says Fleming, in a letter to Colonel Montagu, 
“ is only occasionally observed in Zetland after gales of wind.” Whe- 
ther in spring or autumn, or at what season, is not mentioned ; but 
most probably in the latter, when those which breed in the more 
northern parts of the European continent may be shifting their quar- 
ters, and, by accident, are driven from Norway. * It sings throughout 
the winter, except in severe weather. About the beginning of April 
it prepares a nest in some mossy bank or out-building, composed of 
dead leaves, green moss, and stalks of plants, lined with hair ; and lays 
from five to seven whitish eggs spotted with rust-colour and cinereous ; 
their weight about twenty-six grains. 
* The statement given in most books of natural history, that the 
Redbreast, during summer, flies from the habitation of man, which he 
has haunted during winter, to nestle in wild and solitary places, is far 
from being strictly correct. I readily admit that many of these birds 
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