able.” He adds that many songsters of the autumn seem to
be the young cock Redbreasts of that year.
As the song of the Mistletoe-Thrush is by many associated
with a stormy season, so is that of the Redbreast often considered
a prognostic of fine weather. Several good observers
have expressed their belief that when at evening a Redbreast
takes its stand on the topmost twig of a tree or other
elevated position, and there continues to sing, a fine day may
be safely predicted on the morrow. This evening song however
is not to be confounded with the peculiar call-note
uttered by the bird when ordinarily retiring to rest. I t is
one of the latest of diurnal birds to go to roost, and one of
the earliest to be seen moving in the morning.
Insects, in their various stages, and earthworms, form the
principal food of the Redbreast during the greater part of the
year. The former are chiefly sought for among dead leaves
under trees or bushes, and the latter in more open ground.
In its search for worms, which it beats on the ground before
swallowing them, the bird has much the manner of a
Thrush. As summer advances, berries and to some extent
earden-fruits enter into its diet, while its almost omnivorous
appetite on the setting-in of hard weather is sufficiently well
known.
The Redbreast, like several other birds, is remarkable for
the peculiarity of the situation in which it sometimes builds
its nest, and pages might be cited from various writers,
especially in different periodicals, to confirm this statement.
Some of the more marvellous cases recorded are mentioned in
the late Bishop Stanley’s justly popular ‘ Familiar History of
Birds ’ ; while a large collection of anecdotes shewing many
of the whimsical habits of this feathered favourite has been
compiled by Mr. Morris, and will be found in his ‘ British
Birds’. Yet, notwithstanding all the apparent confidence
with which the Redbreast approaches man and his works,
few birds are generally more jealous of the least interference.
Even after incubation is begun, the sudden discovery of the
nest, while the owner is upon it, without disturbance of its
contents, will often make the bird forsake its eggs, and
handling these at any time, except with the greatest care, is
pretty sure to have the same effect.
The Redbreast breeds early in spring : the nest, formed
of moss, dead leaves and dried grass, and thinly lined with
hair or a few feathers, is most frequently placed on a sheltered
bank, or a short distance above the ground in a thick
bush, sometimes in a hole of a wall partly covered with ivy.
The eggs are from five to seven in number, white, speckled,
streaked or blotched with light red, the markings often being
confluent over almost the whole shell; but some eggs are
quite white. They measure from -83 to -68 by from -66
to '56 in. Two or three broods are produced in the course
of the season.
These birds exhibit great attachment to each other.
Neville Wood writes in the ‘ Naturalist ’ for 1837 (ii. p.
105):—“ One that we caught and caged in November, 1835,
was for several weeks constantly attended by its mate, which
seems to prove that this bird pairs for life. When any one
approached the cage, the male departed very unwillingly,
and, if wholly excluded from the room in which the prisoner
was confined, it would utter the most unceasing and piteous
wailings. After some time, however, the visits became
gradually less frequent, and at length ceased altogether.”
With many redeeming qualities, the Redbreast is, however,
one of the most pugnacious among birds, and maintains its
right to a certain limited domain against all intruders.
Generally diffused over the British Islands, the Redbreast
occurs all the year round even so far north as the Orkneys,
but it does not breed in the Shetlands, and has only of late
been found in the Outer Hebrides. According to Herr C.
Muller it not rarely occurs in the Faeroes in autumn. Herr
Collett says that some winter in the south-west of Norway,
but generally it is a summer-visitant to that kingdom, breeding
as far north as lat. 67°. In Sweden it is said to be the
first of the Warblers to come and the last to g o ; still it
seems not to breed further than lat. 64° N. though it occasionally
occurs beyond that limit, and the Editor was told by
AVolley that he had once seen one in autumn at Muonioniska