198 BRITISH BIRDS 



Missel Thrush is of rather inferior quality, and the great 

 attraction of the species in the eyes of amateurs is the 

 facility with which it will breed in confinement and the 

 readiness with which it will take upon itself the care of 

 young and helpless birds belonging to the other members 

 of its family. 



The Ring Ouzel. 



Unlike the other migratory Thrushes, this bird comes 

 to us during the summer time, and breeds freely in our 

 midst, like the Swallow, Martin and many more of the 

 fine weather migrants; and yet, strange to say, Bechstein 

 affirms that it arrives in Germany and England on the 

 foggy days at the end of October or the beginning of 

 November ; Morris, more accurately, as it seems, remarking 

 that it arrives towards the end of March and departs in October. 



As there is no doubt that both authorities are referring 

 to the same bird, the question arises, are we from this 

 discrepancy between two famous ornithologists to conclude 

 that the Ring Blackbird, as it is also called, has ma- 

 terially changed its habits in the course of half a century ? 

 By no means, but rather that even as the divine Homer 

 has occasionally been detected napping, so the Father of 

 Cage-bird Lore sometimes, if very rarely, nodded. 



The male Ouzel varies from n to 12 inches in total 

 length, 4 inches of which belong to the tail; the female 

 is shorter by about an inch. The general colour of the 

 former is black, but the feathers, especially on the lower 

 surface of the body, are edged or fringed with grey, and 

 a crescent-shaped shield of pure white with the points or 

 horns directed upwards occupies the front of the breast, 

 imparting to the wearer a characteristic appearance, that 

 serves to identify it at once. The female is lighter in 

 colour than the male, and has the grey edging more 

 distinct; the white of her shield is tinged with grey. The 

 young males resemble their mother, but the young females 

 have scarcely any sign of the distinctive shield. 



Pure white specimens of the Ring Ouzel have been 

 occasionally met with, and others that show white on 

 the head or on the wings are not uncommon, 



