ALLEN’S NATURALIST’S LIBRARY. 
278 
Range in Great Britain. — Is found as a resident in every part of 
the British Islands, but has not yet been met with as a breed- 
ing bird in the Hebrides. A considerable migration of Robins 
takes place every autumn from the Continent, and even our 
home-bred birds shift their quarters somewhat, and a good 
number of them leave the country. 
Range outside the British Islands. — Breeds throughout Europe, 
but is local in the south of Spain. It likewise occurs in the 
Canaries and the Azores, and appears in a slightly modified 
form in Tenerife, which has been named by Dr. Koenig 
Erithacus superbus. Its eastern breeding range extends to the 
Ural Mountains, but the bird is here not so abundant as it is in 
the west, and its place is taken in Persia by Erithacus hyrcanus. 
The Robin is much more of a migratory species than is 
generally supposed, and has been met with in the Faeroes and 
Jan Mayen, but is not yet recorded from Iceland. A letter 
received from IMr. Robson some years ago informed us that, as 
he was writing, swarms of Robins and Hedge-Sparrows were 
passing through the Buyukdere Valley, near Constantinople, 
on migration. This was in the autumn, and it is evident that 
numbers of Robins avoid the cold in the north during winter, 
and at such seasons the bird is found in Egypt and Palestine, 
and as far east as Persia and Turkestan. 
Habits. The migration of the Robin, just alluded to, is to a 
certain extent enforced, not only by the approach of the cold 
weather, but by the ha 1 it of the old birds of driving off their 
young ones as soon as the latter can shift for themselves. 'Phis 
is the more remarkable because there is no bird more solici- 
tous than the Robin in the care of its nestlings ; but it is 
jealous of any intrusion on its own domain, and fights other 
birds, as well as those of its own species, who dare to invade 
it Thus, in the autumn, young Robins are seen in numbers 
scattered over the southern counties of England, mostly young 
birds in the spotted dress, with a patch of red on the throat, 
showing that the birds arc moulting into their adult plumage. 
Even before the moult is completed, the young males give 
forth short snatches of a melancholy song, and as many as 
half-a-dozen may be heard answering each other from different 
