THE BIRDS OF TKRRICK HOUSE. HI 



tips, one would suppose this would be as likely to occur in the case of a 

 caged bird, as of one possessed of its liberty. From the fact that caged 

 specimens never do exhibit this bright colouring, it may not be altogether 

 unreasonable to conclude that the spirits of the bird may be either remotely 

 or nearly connected with the matter ; like the flush of animation which is seen 

 to bedeck the cheek of the happy and light-hearted among ourselves, in con- 

 tradistinction to the pale, sickly, and care-worn countenance of the sorrowful 

 and dejected. 



In one instance I found an egg of the Cuckoo in a nest of the Linnet. The 

 same remarks would apply in this instance as in that of the Greenfinch, and 

 the same question would arise in the event of the egg having been hatched 

 by this bird. 



CTo he continued.) 



NOTES ON THE HABITS OF THE EING OUZEL. MERULA 



TORQUATA. 



BY E. M. A. 



Gentle reader, have you ever been on Dartmoor? If you have, and if 

 you are a true naturalist, you will look back to that period as a much-to-be- 

 regretted and well-remembered time. From the highest " Tor " that crowns 

 yon hill, down to the marshy hollow that lies beneath your feet, there is 

 ample scope for the exercise of your ornithological, botanical, or geological 

 propensities. You will remember the almost alpine mosses that clothe the 

 rocks ; the delicate ferns that cluster thickly in the numerous ravines ; and 

 the beautiful eriophorum, anagallis, or menyanthes, of the bogs. Perchance 

 if this, my first offering to The Naturalist, meets with a gracious recep- 

 tion, I may hereafter give you the result of some botanical rambles among 

 those favoured regions. My present object in taking up the pen is to give 

 you a slight sketch of the Ring Ouzel, who has ever been my especial 

 favourite, and has ever struck me as not the least ornament of those wild 

 districts in which he delights. 



Do you want to see him at home ? Then take your fishing rod and wander 

 up one of the numerous small streams that contribute their waters to the 

 magnificent Dart. " Owbrook," or " Cherry-brook," or the east branch of the 

 Dart itself will answer your purpose. By the time you have ascended to 

 the more narrow parts of the stream, where it appeara as if it had lost its 

 way, chafing among the grey boulders of granite, you will, in all probability, 

 have ensnared some dozens of small though brightly coloured trout, and 

 (what is more to our present purpose) will have arrived at the abode of the 



