78 BTJTCHER-BIKD. KING-OUSELS. 



The next rare birds (which were procured for ine last 

 week) were some ring-ousels (turdi torquati)* 



This week twelvemonths a gentleman from London being 

 with us, was amusing himself with a gun, and found, he told 

 us, on an old yew hedge where there were berries, some 

 birds like blackbirds, with rings of white round their necks ; 

 n neighbouring farmer also at the same time observed the 

 same ; but, as no specimens were procured, little notice was 

 taken. I mentioned this circumstance to you in my letter 

 of November the 4th, 1767 (you, however, paid but small 

 regard to what I said, as I had not seen these birds myself) : 

 but last week the aforesaid farmer, seeing a large flock, 

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

 hens ; and says, on recollection, that he remembers to 

 have observed 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 belong ' to the more northern parts of Europe ; and 

 may retire before the excessive rigour of the frosts in 

 those parts ; and return to breed in spring when the cold 

 abates. If this be the case, here is discovered a new 

 bird of winter passage, concerning whose migrations the 

 writers are silent ; but if these birds should prove the 

 ousels of the north of England, then here is a migration dis- 

 closed within our own kingdom, never before remarked. It 

 does not yet appear whether they retire beyond the bounds 

 of our island to the south ; but it is most probable that they 

 usually do, or else one cannot suppose that they would have 

 continued so long unnoticed in the southern counties. The 

 ousel is larger than a blackbird, and feeds on haws ; but last 

 autumn (when there were no haws) it fed on yew-berries : 

 in the spring it feeds on ivy-berries, which ripen only at that 

 season, in March and April. 



I must not omit to tell you (as you have been so lately on 



* Before migrating to their winter quarters, and often ere the duties of 

 incubation are over, they leave their mountainous haunts, and descend to the 

 nearest gardens, where they commit severe depredations among the cherries, 

 gooseberries, &c. They also frequent holly hedges and the mountain ash, 

 whenever the fruit of these trees is so early as to be of service during their 

 passage. They are known to the country people under the title of " Mountain 

 Blackbirds." W. J. 



