PING-OUZEL 51 



The ring-ouzel is a summer visitor to this country, arriving about 

 the beginning of April, and spends the summer months and breeds 

 in the higher, least-frequented parts of Dartmoor, in Devonshire, and 

 the hilly part of Derbyshire, and many localities in the north of 

 England. He is also found in various localities in Wales, Scotland, 

 and Ireland. On their arrival the birds are seen for a short period 

 in flocks, sometimes of considerable size, frequenting wet and marshy 

 grounds. As soon as pairing takes place the flocks break up, and 

 the birds distribute themselves over the mountains and high uplands. 

 The song of the male is heard after the birds have paired and made 

 choice of a breeding-site. It is a powerful song, delightful to listen 

 to, partly for its own wild, glad character, but more on account of 

 the savage beauty and solitariness of the nature amidst which it is 

 usually heard. The nest is placed upon or close to the ground, 

 beneath or in a tuft of heather ; and occasionally is built in a low 

 bush or tree. Outwardly it is made of coarse grass or twigs of 

 heather, plastered inside with mud or clay, and lined with fine dry 

 grass. The four or five eggs are bluish green, blotched with reddish 

 brown. 



Seebohm has the following spirited description of the ring-ouzel's 

 action in the presence of danger to its nest : ' Approach their treasure, 

 and, although you have no knowledge of its whereabouts, you 

 speedily know that you are on sacred ground. . . . Something sweeps 

 suddenly round your head, probably brushing your face. You look 

 round, and there the ring-ouzel, perched close at hand, is eyeing 

 you wrathrally, and ready to do battle, despite the odds, for the pro- 

 tection of her abode. Move, and the attack is resumed, this time 

 with loud and dissonant cries that wake the solitudes of the barren 

 moor around. Undauntedly the birds fly around you, pause for a 

 moment on some mass of rock, or reel and tumble on the ground 

 to decoy you away. As you approach still closer the anxiety of the 

 female, if possible, increases ; her cries, with those of her mate, 

 disturb the birds around ; the red grouse, startled, skims over the 

 shoulder of the hill to find solitude ; the moor-pipit chirps anxiously 

 by ; and the gay little stonechat flits uneasily from bush to bush. 

 So long as you tarry near their treasure the birds will accompany 

 you, and, by using every artifice, endeavour to allure or draw you 

 away from its vicinity.' 



Besides the six species described, there are three thrushes to be 

 found in works on British birds : the black-throated thrush (Turdus 



E2 



