AND NEIGHBOURHOOD. 99 



roads. My son, who at my request, went to have 

 a look at this bird on April 5, described it to me as 

 being exactly of the colour of an Australian sovereign. 

 Another yellow Blackbird was reported to me as 

 having been observed in the curtilage of Achurch 

 Eectory on November 4, 1887, and on February 10, 

 1888, my son wrote : — " I saw on Monday last a 

 yellow Blackbird in the Achurch Rectory curtilage. 

 It was pure yellow, without a black spot upon it, 

 and of a lighter colour than the ' golden ' bird 

 of 1884." 



34. RING-OUZEL 



Turdus torquatus. 



The Ring-Ouzel is a pretty regular though not a 

 very abundant autumnal visitor to our country. 1 

 have also twice observed the bird in our immediate 

 neighbourhood on its return migration about the end 

 of April, and have little doubt that its passing visits 

 are as common at that season as in the autumn, 

 though, from my usual absence from home in the 

 spring, I have been unable to carry out any regular 

 observations with regard to its appearance at that 

 time of year. In autumn the Ring-Ouzel generally 

 arrives about the beginning of October, on the 12th 

 of which month, 1878, I observed an unusually large 

 number of this species haunting a tall fence well 

 stocked with berries, near Tichmarsh, but I have 

 several records for September, of which the eailiest 

 is Sept. Id, 1884 ; and one for August 1882, from 

 Hazelbeach. I shot a Ring-Ouzel not far from Lil- 

 ford as late as October 29th in 1860 ; but this was a 

 lingerer, and the only instance in which I have seen 



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