8 RING OUZEL. 



the grass with much apparent confidence ; but if you see him 

 approaching the strawberry bed, you will then perceive a stealthy 

 timidity about him. He snatches and looks round, devours in haste, 

 retires, and comes again " (p. 132) ; and, it may be added, if you 

 catch him in the act of stealing, he flies off, uttering loud objurga- 

 tions, as if he thinks to lessen the crime by the violence of his cries. 

 It should be told, however, that apart from these little fruit robberies, 

 the Blackbird is the gardener's friend, for his principal food through 

 the year consists of worms, slugs, snails, beetles, and other mis- 

 chievous insects. 



Albino varieties of the Blackbird here, as elsewhere, are occa- 

 sionally met with, but more frequently they are pied, or only partially 

 coloured. At this time there is one with white wings, the Rev. W. 

 Baskerville Mynors reports, which frequents the shrubbery of the 

 vicarage garden, at Llanwarne. For the last two years, Mr. Cresswell 

 has observed one at Morney Cross, Fownhope, with white spots on 

 the wings, which after every time of moulting, he notices spread 

 further over the plumage. 



Another curious variety was shot at Marden, by Mr. Griffiths, 

 in the winter of 1886, which is now in the possession of Mr. Daniel 

 Ovens, of Hereford The head is nearly white, with a white spot 

 on the breast, and a few white feathers in the wing. 



The Rev. Clement Ley found a Blackbird's nest on the level 

 ground in a copse at Sugwas, and he has observed the same 

 peculiarity with nearly all the Thrushes. 



TURDUS TORQUATUS— Ring Ouzel. 



A summer visitant, sparsely distributed throughout the higher 

 uncultivated districts of the county. It breeds in moderate 

 abundance in the dingles of the Hatterill Hills and the Black 



