RING-OUZEL 



459 



aggregated at the larger end. Neither are abnormaHties in the colour 

 of the plumage at all uncommon ; pied, pale whity-brown, and pure 

 white blackbirds being exhibited in the Natural History branch of the 

 British Museum at South Kensington. 



Rinff-Ouzel ^^^ ring-ouzel holds somewhat the same position in 

 (Tupdus ^^^ blackbird group as is occupied by the redwing 



topquatus) ^^^ fieldfare among the spotted thrushes. Whereas, 

 however, the two latter birds seek British hospitality 

 for the winter, the ring-ouzel is chiefly a spring-visitor to our islands, 

 remaining in some districts to breed, but in other cases passing farther 

 south to reappear for a short stay in autumn. On the other hand, 

 there appears to be satisfactory evidence to show that in some districts, 

 as in parts of Dorset- 

 shire and Hereford- 

 shire, as well as in 

 Scotland, a certain 

 number of ring-ouzels 

 remain with us, either 

 occasionally or per- 

 manentl}', throughout 

 the year, while a few 

 sometimes make their 

 appearance only in 



the winter. Hilly districts, such as the South Downs in the south- 

 east of England, form the exclusive resorts of these handsome black- 

 birds, whose range includes the whole of the United Kingdom, although 

 in the Shetlands (but not in Orkney) the visits of the species are few 

 and far between. In the south of England ring-ouzels are generally 

 met with only on migration, although there is a report of their having 

 nested in Essex ; but from Hereford northwards the}- commonly nest on 

 the higher grounds, as they do in all the mountainous districts of Ireland. 



Here it may be well to state that some diversity of view obtains 

 with regard to the s\'stematic position of the ring-ouzel and its relatives 

 among those ornithologists who separate the blackbirds generically 

 from the thrushes, Eor instance, while in one work the ring-ouzel is 

 placed among the blackbirds ^ with the title Mcrula torqnata, in a 

 second the same writer re-transfers it to the original genus Turdiis, 

 while retaining the true blackbirds in Merular Perhaps we may 



^ Sharpe, Handbook to Birds of Great Britain, vol. i. p. 253 (1897). 

 - Sharpe, Hand-List of Birds in British Museum, vol. iv. p. 140 (1903). 



RING-(JCZEL. 



