224 



Birds. 



the crow, to mark and announce the approach of danger. 

 On any person approaching a tree that is covered with 

 them, they continue fearless, till one at the extremity of 

 the bush, rising on its wings, gives a loud and peculiar 

 note of alarm. They then all fly away, except one, 

 which continues till the person approaches still nearer, 

 to certify, as it were, the reality of the danger,- and 

 afterwards he also flies off, repeating the note of alarm. 



Mr. Knapp, in his " Journal of a Naturalist," says, 

 that in the county of Gloucestershire the extensive 

 low-lands of the river Severn, in open weather, are 

 visited by prodigious flocks of these birds 



THE KING OUZEL. (Turdus torquatus.} 



THE RING OUZEL differs from the fieldfare and redwing, 

 to which it is nearly allied, in being a summer visitor 

 to the British islands, instead of a winter one. It is 

 found only in the wildest and most mountainous dis- 

 tricts ; particularly among the Welsh mountains and on 

 Dartmoor, in Devonshire, where it has been known to 

 breed. % 



