46o PKRCHIXG BIRDS 



venture to say that such diversities of view serve to strengtlicn the 

 arguments for retaining thrushes, blackbirds, and ring-ouzels in one 

 and the same genus. 



As regards the characteristics of the ring-ouzel, the one distinctive 

 feature is the white gorget, common to both sexes, from which it takes 

 its name ; this gorget being, however, narrower in adult females, and 

 but very slightlx' developed in }oung birds of that sex. The cock is 

 sooty black, but has gre}- margins to the feathers of the wing, most 

 conspicuous on the inner secondaries. Hens show a tendency to 

 brown ; and young birds are generally stated to resemble that sex, 

 although a }'oung cock in the collection of the British Museum is of a 

 deeper black than the adult. When leaving the nest, young birds have 

 reddish -brown margins to the feathers and white streaks down the 

 wing-coverts, but show no sign of the white gorget, the feathers in 

 that region being black with buff edges, while those of the chest and 

 abdomen are barred with black and buff, and those of the throat buff 

 with black spots. 



According to the views of specialists, the ring-ouzel has a very 

 restricted range, which includes onl}- northern Europe in summer, and 

 central and southern Europe in winter ; the Alpine and Caucasian 

 ring-ouzels being regarded as distinct species, as is certainly the one 

 {Turdns cast(xncus) inhabiting the Himalaya. 



Although ring-ouzels usuall}' migrate in flocks, their general habits 

 are very similar to those of blackbirds, as are also their nests, which 

 are, however, generally built on the ground, but sometimes in holes. 

 In general characters the four or five eggs recall those of the black- 

 bird, but they have a less obscured and clearer blue ground, with 

 bolder and richer markings, and thus approximate to the true thrush 

 type. It may be added that the mottled first plumage of both the 

 present species and the blackbird is indicative of descent from birds 

 allied to the spotted thrushes. The black species may be regarded 

 therefore as specialised representatives of the latter group, perfect])- 

 analogous in the matter of colouring to black antelopes and black 

 wild oxen, which are also specialised types derived from ancestral fawn- 

 coloured members of their respective groups, the black in some cases 

 being common to both sexes, as in the ring-ouzel, but in others 

 restricted to the male, as in the blackbird. That the ring-ouzel is 

 the more specialised of the two species is shown not only by the 

 black plumage being common to the two sexes, but also by the early 

 date at which this dress is acquired by the cock. Hybrids between 

 the ring-ouzel and the blackbird are known. 



