THE RING-OUZEL 25 



Family TURDWsE. Subfamily TURDIN^L. 



THE RING-OUZEL. 



Turdus torquatus, LlNN. 



UPON the Continent of Europe this bird is a summer visitant to the more 

 desolate portions of the pine districts ; it nevertheless breeds freely in 

 the mountainous regions of the South. Eastward its range appears to be limited 

 by the Ural Mountains. It winters in the lowlands and alpine districts of South 

 Europe, in North Africa, Asia Minor, and Persia. 



In Great Britain it is rarely resident ; indeed during the winter it is usually the 

 only British Thrush which is absent. Though in mild seasons it has been known 

 to remain with us up to Christmas, as a rule the Ring- Ouzel leaves us in 

 September or October, returning in April to breed. Although far more abundant 

 as a breeding species in the wild moors and mountainous districts of the 

 North, it is known to have bred in rocky parts of Cornwall, Devon, Somerset, 

 Hampshire, Kent, Suffolk, Norfolk, Warwick, Leicester, Gloucestershire, Mon- 

 mouthshire, Wales, Herefordshire, Shropshire, Staffordshire, Derbyshire : in the 

 wilder portions of Cornwall, Devon, Somerset and Wales it breeds freely. 



The general colour of the male Ring- Ouzel is a dark sooty brown inclining 

 to black, with the exception of a broad white crescentic gorget ; the wing feathers 

 edged externally with grey ; under wing-coverts and axillaries mottled with grey 

 and white : bill yellowish, black at the tip ; feet brownish black ; iris dark brown. 

 The female paler and browner than the male and with somewhat brownish gorget. 

 Birds of the year have broad pale margins to the feathers of the under surface, 

 the gorget in the male is brownish and in the female barely discernable. 

 Nestlings have the feathers of the back and breast barred with black and pale 

 brown, and the wing-coverts tipped with ochraceous buff. 



The nest of this species is not at all unlike that of the Blackbird, but it is 

 somewhat looser in construction : externally it is formed of dry bents and grass, 

 frequently intertwined with twigs of heather or larch and compacted with dead 

 leaves, moss and mud ; inside it is lined with clay or mud, concealed by a thick 

 inner lining of fine grass. It is almost always built on the ground, most 

 frequently amongst ling on the sharp edge of an embankment ; also under furze, 



VOL. I. F 



