136 ADVENTURES AMONG BIRDS 



rocks on the glen side, and captured it just to hold it 

 a minute or so in my hand for the sake of its beauty, 

 also to see what its parents would do. They came at 

 me in a fury, to flutter about within two or three yards 

 of me, screaming and scolding their loudest and very 

 soon their noise brought a pair of ring-ouzels on the 

 scene to help them. Here was a fine opportunity of 

 comparing our two British blackbirds — two pairs, male 

 and female, all animated by the same passion, and acting 

 together like birds of the same species, dashing close 

 to my face, as I sat on a stone holding the richly-coloured 

 young bird in my hand, showing it to them. 



The ring-ouzel always looks like a lesser blackbird, 

 even when they are thus seen side by side, although it 

 is about the same size; but he is not so black as his 

 cousin, for black, being the most conspicuous colour in 

 nature, exaggerates the size of an object, especially a 

 living moving one, to the eye. In some lights the ring- 

 ouzel has a rusty appearance owing to the pale tips of 

 the feathers. The female is less black than the male 

 and varies in colour according to the light, sometimes 

 appearing olive-black or brown, and in some lights a 

 greenish-bronze colour. 



On my liberating the young bird the four demon- 

 strators flew off. On the following day I found the 

 ring-ouzel's nest in a tuft of bilberry growing on a ledge 

 of rock at the glen side. It contained four eggs. The 

 male continued to sing at intervals during the day when 

 the female was sitting, but his favourite time was late 

 in the evening, when perched on a stone about a hundred 



