in it to be more or less acquainted with its habits. These
to a large extent may be observed even at our very doors,
and to the attentive naturalist there is perhaps no bird which
supplies so ready a key to that most wonderful of ornithological
mysteries—seasonal migration, little as even now we
understand it. Undeniably resident as a species in our own
country, close scrutiny will reveal the fact that its numbers
are subject to very considerable variation according to
the time of year. Towards the end of summer the old birds
for the most part withdraw from ordinary observation, betaking
themselves to the shelter and comparative privacy which
the luxuriant foliage of that season affords them, while food
being then plentiful and obtained with little exertion, these
conditions favour their successfully undergoing the annual
moult—one of the severest strains to which bird-life is exposed.
That process completed, they return towards autumn
to their familiar haunts, which in the meantime have been
occupied by their progeny, the young of the preceding spring.
The old birds, then in renewed vigour, proceed to engage the
young, and each lawn and thicket becomes a battle-field; but
so far from the vulgar belief of the latter destroying the
former being well founded, the young are almost invariably
worsted and possession remains with the victorious parents.
What becomes of the defeated is not exactly known, hut it
may he plausibly suggested that, driven away from the place
of their birth, they join the numerous bands of allied species
which are then seeking more southern regions (for it is unquestionable
that in most parts of the Continent the Redbreast
is a bird-of-passage, commoner in the fall of the year
than at other times), and help to swell the stream of emigrants
then setting steadily towards warmer climes. For
such as survive the mishaps of the long voyage, which possibly
has for its goal some oasis in an African desert, there
is no cessation of peril, since the winter-quarters of the
wanderers are beset by hosts of birds-of-prey both small
and great, so that, wanting in experience and strength to
escape, few are left to return when the northward movement
begins in the following spring. But the migratory
influence affects, though in a less degree, many if not most of
the Redbreasts which remain at home. Content as they are
during the autumn to occupy the woods, hedges and gardens
which form their usual haunts, the first sharp frost has a
decided effect upon their distribution, while a heavy fall of
snow drives them towards the homesteads for the supplies of
food they find there ; but should severe and long-continued
hard weather supervene, and sustenance become more scarce,
even these stranger birds vanish—one knows not whither,
leaving only the few which had before become almost domesticated
; and it need scarcely be said that in winter every
country and many a suburban dwelling has its attendant
pensioner, who, being “ sacred to the household gods,”
requires but little invitation to become an indoor guest.
Thomson indeed has truly described the half-confident, halfdoubtful
manner of the Redbreast when he ventures to enter
the cottage to pick up the proffered crumbs :
“ then, hopping o’er the floor.
Eyes all the smiling family askance,
And peeks, and starts, and wonders where he is.”
The Seasons.— Winter.
The sprightly air of this bird, the full dark eye and the
sidelong turn of the head, give an appearance of sagacity
and inquiry to its character which, aided by its confidence,
has gained it friends ; and Robin-Redbreast has accordingly
acquired some familiar domestic name in almost every
country of Europe*.
The song of this species is sweet and plaintive, but not
very powerful. Winte of Selborne says that Redbieasts
“ sing all through the spring, summer, and autumn. The
reason that they are called autumn songsters is, because in
the two first seasons their voices are drowned and lost in the
general chorus ; in the latter their song becomes distinguish-
* In common English the word “ Robin” has come to be used as equivalent
to “ Redbreast,” and thus in various parts of the world colonized by our countrymen
the former term is-generally applied to any well-known redbreasted bird, as
in North America to a species of Thrush (Tardus migratorius) and in Australia
to several species of the genus Petroeca.