MERULA TORQUATA. 275 



Ring-Ousel, Merle, or Mountain Blackbird. 



(Merula Torquata.J Ray. (Turdus Torquatus.) Linn. 



" When snowdrops die, and the green primrose leaves 

 Announce the coming flower, the merle's note, 

 Mellifluous, rich, deep-toned, Alls all the vale, 

 And charms the ravished ear." 



It is called the ring-ousel from the white ring or gorget round 

 its neck ; is also well named the mountain blackbird, as it 

 frequents wild mountainous districts. Unlike its congeners, the 

 fieldfare and redwing, it is more a summer than a winter visitor, 

 and breeds with us, arriving in April and leaving in October, 

 many remaining all year. It is larger than the blackbird, 11 J 

 inches long and 19 in extent of wings ; the female an inch less. 

 Its song, when perched on a stone or rock, consists of a few 

 clear, powerful notes, like those of the missel thrush, not so 

 mellow as the blackbird's. Like all the thrushes, it is shy. It 

 builds its nest on the shelf of a rock or steep bank, protected by 

 a stunted tree or bush, or amongst whins, composed, like the 

 rest, of dry grass, roots, twigs, or heather, some mud, and lined 

 with dry grass ; the eggs — usually five — bluish-green, larger 

 and not so closely freckled as the blackbird's, sometimes 

 inclining to pink, like those of the missel thrush. It breeds 

 about Priormoor, Denino, and Kinaldy — three or four miles 

 from St Andrews. About three o'clock in the morning on June 

 4th, 1888, when hunting after two young cuckoos, a fine male 

 was shot on a whin near its nest at Priormoor, near the old 

 quarry. I have a female stuffed, shot at Kinaldy, September 

 7th, 1857, and, to show they remain all year, two were seen in 

 Denino Den on December 26th, 1892. Four were shot one day 

 in April near the Rock and Spindle at Kinkell Braes. But it 

 is not common here. If we were to go to the uplands of Fife in 

 search of this shy mountain bird we might wander long in vain. 

 Regarding its peculiar migration, White of Selborne wrote in 

 October 1768 :— 



"'On an old yew hedge with berries some birds, like blackbirds, with 

 rings of white round their necks, were seen last year, but as no specimens 

 were got little notice was taken. But last week the same farmer, seeing a 

 flock of twenty or thirty of these birds, shot two cocks and two hens, and 

 said he saw these birds again last spring about Lady Day, as it were, on 

 their return to the north. Now, perhaps these ousels are not the ousels of 

 the north of England, but of the northern parts of Europe, and may retire 

 before the frosts and return to breed in spring. If this be the case, here is 

 discovered a new bird of winter passage concerning whose migrations the 



