“Little bird with bosom red,
Welcome to my humble shed!
Courtly domes of high degree
Have no room for thee and me;
Pride and pleasure’s fickle throng
Nothing mind an idle song.
Daily near my table steal,
While I pick my scanty meal;
Doubt not, little though there be,
But I’ll cast a crumb for thee;
Well rewarded if I spy
Pleasure in thy glancing eye;
And see thee, when thou’st eat thy fill,
Plume thy breast, and wipe thy bill.”
Langhorne.
In the winter season, impelled by the potent stimulus of hunger, the Redbreast frequents our barns, gardens, and houses, and often alights, on a sudden, on the rustic floor; where, with his broad eye incessantly open, and looking askew upon the company, he picks up eagerly the crumbs of bread that fall from the table, and then flies off to the neighbouring bush, where, by his warbling strains, he expresses his gratitude for the liberty he has been allowed. He is found in most parts of Europe, but nowhere so commonly as in Great Britain. His bill is dusky; his forehead, chin, throat, and breast are of a deep orange-colour, inclining to vermilion; the back of his head, neck, back, and tail are of a pale olive-brown colour; the wings are somewhat darker, the edges inclining to yellow; the legs and feet are the colour of the bill. The female generally builds her nest in the crevice of some mossy bank, near places which human beings frequent, or in some part of a human dwelling. Robins have been known to build in a sawpit where men worked every day, and in various other equally extraordinary places. When the Crystal Palace at Sydenham was being fitted up, several Robins built their nests in holes of the large roots used to raise the flower beds within the building. So little fear did they exhibit that their bright eyes might be seen glancing from holes close to which men were passing every moment. The elegant poet of The Seasons gives us a very exact and animated description of this bird in the following lines:
“—— —— Half afraid, he first
Against the window beats: then, brisk alights
On the warm hearth; then, hopping on the floor,
Eyes all the smiling family askance,
And pecks, and starts, and wonders where he is,
Till, more familiar grown, the table-crumbs
Attract his slender feet.”
An old Latin proverb tells us that two Robin Redbreasts will not feed on the same tree; it is certain that the Redbreast is a most pugnacious bird, and that he does not live in much harmony and friendship with those of his own kind and sex. The male may be known from the female by the colour of his legs, which are blacker.
The Redbreast attends the gardener when digging his borders; and will, with great familiarity and tameness, pick out the worms almost close to his spade.
