290 TURDID.'E. 



me, as if desirous of advice in his extremity, but findinj^ it 

 in vain, he at length ran up to me, when the birds, nothing 

 daunted, followed, and gave myself as well as two friends 

 who -were with me, the same salute, flying so near that we 

 could almost have struck them with our hands. At the 

 beginning of the onset, a female bird appeared, as if inciting 

 the males forward, and continued until they attained the 

 highest pitch of violence." He goes on to say that if this 

 had been merely a case of a pair of birds protecting their 

 young or trying to entice the intruders away, as the Pang- 

 Ouzel has been said to do, it would have been unworthy of 

 notice, but the assailants were both cocks. The chase of 

 the dog continued a considerable way, and for about fifteen 

 or twenty minutes. 



The nest is generally built on or near the ground, some- 

 times on a bank by the side of a stream, occasionally under 

 a rocky ledge, at the base of a stone, stump or bush, or 

 among heather which serves as a shelter. The nest, accord- 

 ing to Mr. Hewitson, though difterently situated, is very 

 similar to that of the Blackbird, being " outwardly composed 

 of pieces of heather and coarse grass, with a slight layer 

 of clay, and thickly lined with fine dry grass" : the eggs, 

 foar or five in number, are very like those of the Fieldfare 

 and Blackbird, but the markings have usually a bolder cha- 

 racter,* they measure from 1*3 to 1*03 by from '87 to -82 in. 

 The late Mr. Heysham has seen the young birds, near Carlisle, 

 fully fledged on the 15th of June. 



The food of this species is similar to that of the Black- 

 bird, consisting of earth-worms, slugs, insects, fruit, haws 

 and other berries, especially those of the yew and mountain - 

 ash in autumn, and of the ivy in spring. Sir William 

 Jardine, in a note to his last edition of White's ' Selborne,' 

 says of the Ring-Ouzel: — ''In autumn and before their 

 departure they visit the lower country, and remain a day or 



* Though it has been here attempted to ilesciibe the general appearance of the 

 eggs of each of these birds, as well as of the Mistletoe-Thrush and Redwing, 

 there are some specimens which would almost defy the best judge to refer posi- 

 tively to any one of the five species. 



