i8 THE BIRDS OF YORKSHIRE. 



to his celebrated friend, John Ray, under date of 2nd July 

 1676, as follows : " As to that question of a Heath Throstle, 

 I find that the Ring Ouzel is so called with us in Craven, 

 where there is everywhere on the moors plenty of them." 

 (" Correspondence of John Ray," p. 125.) 



Thomas Allis, in his Report, 1844, wrote : — 



Turdus torquatus. — Ring Ouzel — Common on high moorlands ; 

 according to Dr. Farrar, they are sometimes met with in the more 

 frequented lowlands. R. Leyland on one occasion saw a flock of more 

 than twenty feeding on the berries of a mountain ash, in a garden near 

 Halifax, in the month of September. Arthur Strickland has once or 

 twice met with considerable flights of this bird when shooting in turnips 

 in the autumn, probably collecting for emigration, and apparently 

 consisting for the most part of birds of imperfect plumage, probably 

 birds of the year. 



In addition to being a summer visitant to the broad belt 

 of moorland and the heather-clad fells which range along the 

 entire west of the county and to the Cleveland moors, the 

 Ring Ouzel occurs with great regularity as a transient visitor 

 in the autumn, from Northern Europe, when on its way 

 to more southern winter quarters, and again in the spring 

 on its return journey, but its movements at the latter season 

 are much mixed up with those of our immigrant summer 

 visitants. 



It occurs nearly every autumn, together with the migrant 

 Blackbirds, in the neighbourhood of Beverley, sometimes 

 coming into the gardens, but makes only a short stay, and, 

 after a few days, passes on southward. It is much rarer as 

 a spring migrant, the males at this period singing loudly 

 from the bare ash trees. 



A considerable flight which arrived at Spurn on 6th May 

 1888 may have been referable to the Northern race. They 

 are occasionally at this season noted at other coast stations, 

 and are sometimes killed by striking against the lanterns of 

 our lighthouses ; one met its death at Spurn on 7th May 

 1883, and at Flamborough, on 20th April 1897, another was 

 immolated. The information supplied to the British Associa- 

 tion Migration Committee shews that in 1882 there were 



