THE RING-OUZEL. 243 
MERULA TORQUATA. 
THE RING-OUZEL. 
(PLATE 8.) 
Turdus merula torquata, Briss, Orn. ii. p. 235 (1760), 
Turdus torquatus, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 296 (1766); et auctorum plurimorum— 
Gmelin, Latham, Pallas, Temminck, Gray, Newion, Sharpe, Dresser, (Gould), &c. 
Merula torquata (Linn.), Bove, Isis, 1822, p. 552, 
Sylvia torquata (Linn.), Savi, Orn. Tose. i. p. 206 (1827). 
Copsichus torquatus (Linn.), Kaup, Natirl. Syst. p. 157 (1829). 
Thoracocinela torquata (Linn.), Reich. Nat. Syst. pl. xliii, (1850). 
‘The range of the Ring-Ouzel in Great Britain is pretty much restricted 
to the moorland wastes and northern mountains. In the south of 
England the bird is seen on spring and autumn migration, and breeds in 
one or two localities, notably on Dartmoor. It has also been known to 
breed in Cornwall, Kent, Suffolk, Norfolk, Warwick, and Leicester, and 
in a few of the Welsh mountain-districts. From Derbyshire northwards 
the Ring-Ouzel is a common bird on the moors, extending its range to the 
Scottish Highlands, but is only seen on autumn migration in the Orkney 
and Shetland Islands. Curiously enough, on the Outer Hebrides the bird 
is unknown; and even on the innermost western isles it is a rare bird, 
although the ground seems eminently suitable to it. Throughout Ireland 
in all suitable localities it is commonly found. Upon the European con- 
tinent the Ring-Ouzel is a summer visitant to the bare rocky portions of 
the pine-districts ; yet in most of the mountainous districts of the south 
which the birds pass on migration numbers remain to breed. But it does 
not appear to range further east than the Ural Mountains. Its winter- 
quarters are the lowlands and alpine districts of South Europe, North 
Africa, Asia Minor, and Persia. 
The Ring-Ouzel is an especial favourite with most ornithologists—not 
so much from its rarity as from the localness of its distribution, and not 
so much from any thing specially interesting in its appearance or habits 
as from the romantic. scenery of its breeding-grounds. It may be said to 
be a mountain form of the Blackbird. The lowland species seldom ascends 
the hills more than a thousand feet, where it is replaced by the Ring-Ouzel. 
In the Caucasus the Ring-Ouzel frequents the rhododendron region, seven 
thousand feet above the level of the sea; and when I was toiling up the 
steep ascent of the North Cape in Norway, in lat. 714°, I amused myself 
with watching the Ring-Ouzels on the rocks. As it is not recorded from 
Archangel, and Harvie-Brown and I did not meet with it in the valley of 
R 2 
