THE REDBREASTS. 
277 
Tarsiger. The uniformity of colouring of both sexes is one of 
the chief characteristics of the genus Erithacus. The bill is 
plentifully beset with bristles, and tire first primary is large, 
being nearly half the length of the second. 
THE COMMON REDBREAST. ERITHACUS RUBECULA. 
Motacilla rubecula , Linn., Syst. Nat., i., p. 337 ( x 766). 
Erithacus rubecula , Macg., Br. B., ii., p. 263 (1839); Newt., 
Br. B., i., p. 303 (1872) ; Dresser, B. Eur., ii., p. 329, pi. 
51 (1873); Seek, Cat. B. Brit. Mus., v, p. 299 (1881); 
id. Br. B., i., p. 262 (1883) ; B. O. U. List Br. B., p. 10 
(1883); Saunders, Man., p. 37 (1889); Lilford, Col. Fig. 
Br. B., pt. xxii. (1892) ; Wyatt, Br. B., pi. 3 . fig- 2 (1894). 
Adult Male. — General colour dark olive-brown, with a slight 
greyish shade, the wing-coverts like the back, with pale ochreous- 
buff tips to the greater series ; primary-coverts, quills, and tail 
feathers dark brown, edged with olive ; crown of head like the 
back ; base of forehead and lores orange-rufous, extending over 
the eye ; cheeks, throat, and chest also bright orange-rufous, 
with a broad shading of bluish-grey reaching from behind the 
eye and skirting the orange of the throat down the sides of the 
neck to the sides of the upper breast, which are also bluish- 
grey ; centre of breast and abdomen dull white, the flanks 
light olive-brown ; thighs darker olive ; under wing-coverts and 
axillaries yellowish-buff, with ashy bases ; quills dusky brown 
below, ochreous along the inner web ; bill dark brown, lighter 
at the base ; legs brown ; iris very dark brown. 1 otal length 
6 inches ; culmen, 0-5 ; wing, 3'x ; tail, 2^4; tarsus, i‘i. 
Adult Female. — Similar to the male. Total length, 6 inches; 
wing, 2-85. 
Young.— Ochreous-brown, the feathers centred with ochreous- 
buff, and mottled with blackish tips to the feathers, the wing- 
coverts all plainly centred with ochreous-buff, underneath, 
ochreous-buff, paler on the throat and abdomen, the feathers 
of the breast and sides of the body edged with dusky brown. 
After the autumn moult the young birds resemble the adults, 
but can always be recognised by golden-buff tips to the median 
wing-coverts, forming a band which lasts even to the following 
spring. 
