The Ring-Ouzel. 27 



and romantic one. You will first make his acquaintance where the heath begins, 

 where the silver birch trees are scattered amongst the rock fragments, and the 

 gorse bushes and stunted thorn and bracken are the last signs of more lowland 

 vegetation. The scenery gets wilder, but still the bird is 3'our companion ; he 

 flits from rock to rock before 3'ou, or, b}- making long detours, returns to the 

 place whence you flushed him, uttering his loud, harsh, and discordant call-notes. 

 The hills of Derbyshire are one of his favourite haunts ; almost on the very 

 summit of Kinder Scout, the highest peak of the High Peak, nearly two 

 thousand feet above the sea level, the Ring-Ouzels rear their young." 



I cannot speak personally as to the Ring-Ouzel's suitability for cage life ; 

 so far as I have been able to judge, from the specimens occasionally exhibited at 

 bird shows, it appears to be as easily tamed as our other Thrushes ; but it is 

 possible that these specimens may have been hand-reared birds I certainly never 

 heard one of them attempt to sing. There are several reasons for this dumb 

 behaviour in captive birds ; some that will not sing at all in a cage, warble 

 splendidly in an aviar}- ; then, insufficiently nourishing, or unnatural food may be 

 the cause, the first from its lowering effect and the second by making the 

 prisoner feel positively' ill. Birds which are accustomed, when wild, to feed 

 almost entirely on insects and fruit, are provided at our shows with a mess of 

 finely grated raw beef and bread crumbs ; on such hopelessly unnatural diet, it is 

 no marvel, not merel}' that they feel disinclined to sing, but if they die before 

 their term of punishment is completed. 



With the Ring-Ouzel, in the writer's opinion, the true British " Thrushes," 

 so called, should terminate. Other species recorded as belonging to our fauna, 

 in works upon the birds of Great Britain, are : — 



Family— TURDW.^. Subfamily— TURDIN^E. 



The Black Throated Thrush. 



Turdus atrigularis, Teimm. 

 NTRODUCED, because one young male was shot near Lewes in 1868. 



I 



