HABITATION.--When wild, these birds are found in abundance during the period of migration, on hedges and bushes, but in summer they must be sought in the woods. "This retreat," it has been said, "is necessary to their happiness: the male is engrossed with the society of his mate, all other company is troublesome; he pursues eagerly the birds of his species, and drives them from the district he has chosen for himself; the same bush never contains two pairs of these birds." The red-breasts return to us (in Germany) about the middle of March[92]; they stop for about a fortnight in the hedges, and then proceed into the woods. In October they return towards the bushes, which they busily search as they travel, and proceed gradually to their destination. Some delay their departure till November, some will even remain here and there throughout the winter, but generally to their cost, as their life is usually sacrificed by these delays. Necessity then forces them to draw near to houses, dunghills, and stables, where they are generally caught by men or cats, or die of hunger and cold if the frost is long and severe, and the snow deep. Care must be taken in hard weather not to transport them suddenly into a warm room, the rapid change from cold to heat invariably kills them. They should at first be put in a cold room, and be gradually accustomed to warm air; with these precautions they will do as well as those which are caught in the autumn or spring. In confinement the inhabitants of my neighbourhood like to see red-breasts hopping about the room, and they make a roost for them of oak or elm branches. They find that this bird destroys flies and even bugs. Such a situation appears to agree with him very well, as he lives in this way from ten to twelve years. He is so jealous and unsociable that he must not have a companion; he must be quite alone; a second would cause battles which would end only with the death of one of the combatants; if, however, they are equal in strength, and in a large room, they will divide it, and each taking possession of his half, they remain in peace, unless one should pass his limits, in which case war begins, and is maintained to the last extremity. In order the better to enjoy their pretty song, they are provided with a cage generally resembling that of the nightingale. FOOD.--When wild the red-breast feeds on all sorts of insects, which are pursued with great skill and agility; sometimes this bird is seen fluttering like a butterfly round a leaf on which is a fly, or if he sees an earth-worm he hops forward flapping his wings, and seizes it. In autumn he eats different sorts of berries.