182 EGGS OF BRITISH BIRDS. 



the Continent it breeds in Scandinavia, but in Central Europe it 

 is replaced by M. alpestris. 



When examining the nest of this bird, its close resemblance to 

 that of the Blackbird will be noticed. Indeed it would be almost 

 impossible to discriminate between them, were we not aware that 

 the Blackbird does not haunt the wide, open, moor. In the dis- 

 tricts where the habitats of these two birds adjoin (the boundary 

 of cultivation and the wild), nothing but a sight of the parent 

 birds can make identification sure. 



The Ring Ouzel lays four or five finely-marked eggs, bluish- 

 green in ground-colour, boldly and richly blotched with reddish- 

 brown, and sometimes streaked with dark brown. So closely do 

 the eggs of this bird resemble those of the Blackbird and the 

 Fieldfare, that, were a series of the eggs of these three birds 

 mixed promiscuously, it would be absolutely impossible to separate 

 all of them correctly. Nevertheless, on an average, the Ring 

 Ouzel's eggs have the ground-colour clearer, and are more boldly 

 and richly marked, than those of the Blackbird. They vary in 

 length from 1*35 to l'OS inch, and in breadth from 0'9 to 0'78 

 inch. 



THE BLACK-THROATED OUZEL. 

 (Merula a trig it la ris.) * 



Plate 51, Fig. 1. 



The only claim of this Thrush to rank as a British species rests 

 on a single example taken in the south of England during the 

 winter of 1868. The Black-throated Ouzel belongs to the eastern 

 Palgearctic region, and is one of many Siberian birds which are 

 in the habit of occasionally missing their way on their autumn 

 migration, and wandering into Europe instead of Southern Asia. 



Nothing is known of the nest of this bird ; but a series of its 

 eggs has been obtained by Herr Tancre's collectors on the Altai 

 Mountains. They exhibit the same variation in colour as the 

 eggs of the Blackbird, and measure from 1'2 to 11(3 inch in 

 length, and from 0*8 to 075 inch in breadth. 



* Tardus atrogularis — Saunders, Manual, p. 9. 



