BIRDS OF LANCASHIRE. 



EING-OUZEL. 



TuRDUs TORQUATUS, Liiinaeiis. 



Local Names — Bock-OuzeJ, Fell-Ouzel. 



A summer migrant, arriving from early in March to 

 early in April, and often remaining till October, though 

 most leave in September. It is very generally dis- 

 tributed over almost all the higher lands, seldom nest- 

 ing on the lower levels, though Mr. John Hardy says 

 that it breeds occasionally on the drier parts of Chat 

 Moss, Barton Moss, and surrounding neighbourhood, 

 and Mr. C. S. Gregson {Nati(mUst''s Scrap Book, 1863- 

 64, pt. 8) records that he has taken its nests on the 

 banks of the Irwell, Irk, Medlock, and Mersey, the whole 

 within a few miles of the city of Manchester. It breeds 

 in Bircle, an elevated district near Bury, and is pretty 

 plentiful on the whole range of moors on the Yorkshire 

 border, from Blackstone Edge northwards to the Leek 

 Fells, preferring those that are bare and rocky, and 

 intersected with old walls. It is less common on Hol- 

 combe Hill, but Mr. H. Miller has not seldom found its 

 nests in the clefts on Haslingden Moor and Hapton 

 Scouts. Col. H. W. Feilden says (Dresser's "Birds of 

 Europe") that it is common during the breeding-season 

 on Withnell and Anglezark Moors, between Bolton and 

 Chorley, and that there he has invariably found the 

 nests in banks of water-courses. On Pendle Hill there 

 are always a few pairs, and they breed among a lot of 

 furze-bushes at the bottom, where also are quantities of 

 Blackbirds, nests taken here requiring careful identifica- 

 tion. But the Einii-Ouzel is not often found as low 



