redbreasts

Bidding her note every appearance, animal and vegetable, that showed the approach of spring, and communicate them to him, he said, On the 27th of February I saw blackbirds and robin redbreasts; and on the 7th of this month I heard the frogs for the first time this year.

The Bloom of Monticello 1926

The waistcoat was indispensable, and the slang name for them was "redbreasts," in consequence.

The Letters of Charles Dickens Vol. 2 (of 3), 1857-1870 Charles Dickens 1841

It had formerly been her delight, so she affirmed, to hear the loups-degorge (rouges-gorges) chanter dans les ogrepines (aubepines) — to hear the redbreasts sing in the hawthorn-trees.

Les Miserables 2008

‘That ‘ere Tony is the blessedest boy,’ said Mr. Weller, heedless of this rebuff, ‘the blessedest boy as ever I see in MY days! of all the charmin’est infants as ever I heerd tell on, includin’ them as was kivered over by the robin-redbreasts arter they’d committed sooicide with blackberries, there never wos any like that ‘ere little Tony.

Master Humphrey's Clock 2007

‘That ‘ere Tony is the blessedest boy,’ said Mr. Weller, heedless of this rebuff, ‘the blessedest boy as ever I see in MY days! of all the charmin’est infants as ever I heerd tell on, includin’ them as was kivered over by the robin-redbreasts arter they’d committed sooicide with blackberries, there never wos any like that ‘ere little Tony.

Master Humphrey's Clock 2007

London and summer are many months away: our moors are all white with snow just now, and little redbreasts come every morning to the window for crumbs.

The Life of Charlotte Bronte 2002

Olivia and Sophia would, I am quite sure, never have spread the dinner-cloth upon hay, which would most surely have set all the gravy aflow, if the platters had not been fairly overturned; and as for the redbreasts, (with that rollicking boy Moses in my mind,) I think they must have been terribly tame birds.

The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 13, No. 79, May, 1864 Various

"Well, I have heard in my time a great many wonderful stories of robin-redbreasts and jenny-wrens, but I always understood that they were intended only to amuse little boys and girls."

Willis the Pilot Paul Adrien

In the autumn, when the leaves, dressed in their gayest dress, were bidding farewell to the sunshine and the wind and each other, hundreds of robin-redbreasts -- "God's birds" -- hopped like little flames about the ground, and in a hollow tree near the cottage door a pretty red-brown wren and his mate had found shelter for a long time, and reared several broods.

Harper's Young People, February 17, 1880 An Illustrated Weekly Various

There were blackbirds with yellow bills, who advanced boldly over the snow up to the very feet of the distributing fairy; robin redbreasts, nearly as tame, hopping gayly over the stones, bobbing their heads and puffing out their red breasts; and tomtits, prudently watching awhile from the tops of neighboring trees, then suddenly taking flight, and with quick, sharp cries, seizing the grain on the wing.

The French Immortals Series — Complete Various