ROBINS , ETC. 
487 
in the middle of lonely woods, it constructs its nest of dry leaves, moss, and dead 
grass, lined with a little hair. The eggs are white, blotched and streaked with 
light red. When the young birds 
are fledged, they flit about the 
gardens and outhouses gathering 
a variety of insects. Many of 
them migrate in autumn, while 
others linger to utter their silvery 
notes during the dead months of 
the year, drawing near the cottages 
and farmhouses at the approach 
of frost. The plumage of the male 
robin is olive-brown above, tinted 
with grey; the neck, forehead, and 
throat being bright orange, the 
remainder of the lower-parts olive- 
brown. The robin of the Canary 
Islands has been classified as a 
distinct species. 
Another beautiful species of warbler is the rubythroat 
Rubythroat. . L y 
(. E. calliope ), represented on the right side of the illustration on 
p. 485, which makes its summer home in the extreme north of Russia and Siberia, 
breeding among the tundras of the Arctic Circle, after the ice and snow have 
thawed and disappeared. Mr. Seebohm says that the song of the rubythroat “ is 
very fine, decidedly more melodious than that of the bluethroat, and very little 
inferior to that of the nightingale. When first I heard him sing I thought I was 
listening to a nightingale; he had his back towards me when I shot him, and I 
was astonished to pick up a bird with a scarlet throat. The feathers were as 
glossy as silk, and when I skinned him I thought I had rarely if ever seen so 
beautiful a warbler. The rubythroat appears in the south of Siberia as early as 
the beginning of April. Its nest is said to be a slight structure, and the eggs are 
olive-grey. It is a bird of shy and solitary habits, frequenting thickets and close 
cover, and obtaining its food chiefly upon the ground. It loses the brilliant colour 
of the throat in confinement. It winters in the Philippine Islands, South China, 
Burma, and Northern and Central India, occasionally straying into Europe. Jerdon 
once met with a rubythroat on board ship a little south of Bombay, when a single 
bird of this species took refuge on board his vessel in the month of November. 
The adult male has the upper-parts of a uniform olive-brown; the eyestripe and 
cheeks being white; while the chin and throat are glossy scarlet; and the breast 
ash-grey shading into huffy grey. 
The nightingale (E. luscinia) is celebrated in Western Europe 
ghti i n ^fl.1 ft ^ ^ ' i 
as an incomparable songster, and has from all times enjoyed just 
reputation for the perfection of its vocal powers. Wintering in Africa, it reaches 
its summer home in the British Isles about the 13th of April, the males being the 
first to arrive. Its range in the British Isles is somewhat circumscribed; and it 
does not breed north of Yorkshire. The nest is a loose structure of stems of grass 
THE REDBREAST 
