210 MERULID.E. 



a series of letters containing notes on the Natural History of 

 Birds and Fislies in Devonshire. From this gentleman I 

 learn that flocks of Ring Ouzels appear in October, for about 

 a fortnight, near Berry-head, the Bolt-headland, and the 

 Start Point, and are then seen no more that year. Farther 

 to the eastward, at the Island of Portland, where these birds 

 assemble, they are called Michaelmas Blackbirds ; and the 

 Isle of Purbeck is another starting-place. White of Selborne 

 saw tliem frequently when on their route in Hampshire and 

 Sussex. These flights probably go to France and Spain, and 

 from thence to North Africa, where they pass the winter. 



A specimen is occasionally obtained near London. A fe- 

 male bird, in my own collection, given me by my friend Mr. 

 Arthur Vardon, was caught in a trap in his garden at South 

 Lambeth ; and a young male bird of the year was shot out 

 of a small flock on Wimbledon Common in October last by 

 Mr. Larkham of Roehampton. 



From our eastern coast these birds probably cross the 

 Channel to Germany. They are rare in Holland, but com- 

 mon in France. They breed in the mountains of Switzer- 

 land, and are seen on the higlier mountains of Arragon. 

 They are sometimes abundant in winter at Genoa and in Italy ; 

 but a great portion pass over to Africa, Egypt, and Syria. 



The adult male has the point of the beak almost black, with 

 more or less of yellow at the base ; the irides dark brown ; the 

 head, neck, back, upper tail-coverts, wings, and tail-feathers, 

 nearly uniform brownish black; the feathers of the body edged 

 with blackish grey ; the external margins of all the wing- 

 feathers grey, but this lighter colour is broadest on the edges 

 of the tertials : the chin, throat, breast, belly, and under tail- 

 coverts are of the same colour as the upper surface of the 

 body, but across the chest there is a broad crescentic stripe 

 of pure white : the legs, toes, and claws, brownish black. 



The leng'th of an adult bird is about eleven inches. The 



