/ 



42 HANDBOOK OF BRITISH BIRDS 



the Ring Ouzel "lives all the year round on the 

 slopes of the Black Mountains in Herefordshire," 

 and adds, " I have shot them in winter, and have 

 often found their nests in summer," Mr. R. Service 

 testifies to its appearance in winter (Dec. 9) in Gal- 

 loway (ZooL, 1893, p. 27). In 1895 one was ob- 

 served at Berwick - on - Tweed on January 7 (Ann. 

 Scot. Nat. Hist., 1897, p. 6). According to Mr. 

 P. D. Malloch, the Ring Ouzel remains in some of 

 its haunts all the year round ; a specimen in the 

 Museum at Perth was shot on the Ochils on Feb. 5, 

 1882 (Ann. Scot. Nat. Hist., 1893, p. 113). Mr. Cor- 

 deaux saw two at Kilnsea, in Holderness, on Feb. 25 

 {Zool, 1893, p. 192). In Ireland, according to A. G. 

 More, the Ring Ouzel breeds in all the mountainous 

 districts. 



Fam. SYLVIIDiE. 



HEDGE-SPARROW. Accentor modularis (Linnaeus). 

 PI. 9, figs. 15, 15a. Length, 5*5 in.; wing, 2-75 in.; 

 tarsus, '8 in. 



Resident and generally distributed. One of the 

 commonest foster parents of the Cuckoo ; and so 

 noticed by Shakespeare ("King Lear," Act i. sc. 4). 

 In some counties known as " dunnock," in allusion 

 to its dun colour. 



REDBREAST. Erythacus rubecula (Linnaeus). PI. 7, 

 figs. 5, 6. Length, 5*75 in. ; wing, 2*9 in. ; tarsus, 1 in. 



Resident and generally distributed. An old 

 English name for this familiar bird is "ruddock," 



