THE RING-OUZEL 
and very noisy, bird, resenting any intrusion of its haunt 
by a series of oft-repeated chattering cries. It visits our 
islands to breed, spending the winter in the south of 
Europe or North Africa. In its summer haunts it is 
particularly fond of frequenting rocky places, the banks 
of moorland streams, where heather and birch-trees are 
plentiful, and where the gorse and bramble and bracken 
are interspersed with huge boulders. Soon after arrival 
the males commence their song, which is not so flute-like 
as that of the blackbird, although equally short and broken 
up by interrupted strings of harsh notes. It breeds in 
May, making a nest exactly similar to that of the Black- 
bird in a low bush or on the ground amongst the heath. 
The four or five eggs also resemble those of that species 
so closely that they cannot be distinguished from them. 
At the nest it is very pugnacious. In its food, flight, 
habit of elevating its tail upon alighting, and in many 
other ways it closely resembles the more familiar bird. 
It rears but one brood each season, and retires south in 
September and October. 
The adult male Ring-Ouzel is nearly uniform brownish 
black, except a broad white band across the breast, and 
most of the small feathers have pale margins. Bill 
yellow; tarsi and claws brown; irides brown. ‘The 
female is duller and browner, and the white gorget is 
suffused with brown. Length about Io inches. Nest- 
lings are barred with black and buff on the breast and 
back, and the wing coverts are spotted with buff. 
