254 ALLEN'S NATURALIST'S LIBRARY. 



Total length, 10 inches; culmen, 0-9; wing, 5-4; tail, 3-8; 

 tarsus, i '3. 



Adult Female. Rather browner than the male, and having 

 faint remains of pale margins to the feathers of the upper sur- 

 face ; the under surface more distinctly varied than in the 

 male, and not so uniform, the feathers edged with ashy-white 

 on the throat as well as the breast ; the white gorget over- 

 shaded with brown margins to the feathers. Total length, 10 

 inches ; wing, 5*3. 



Young birds after the autumn moult are thickly covered below 

 with greyish-white margins to the feathers, the white gorget 

 being almost obscured with brown, especially in the young 

 females. 



Nestlings. Blackish, with obscure reddish-brown edgings to 

 the feathers, and the wing-coverts streaked down the centre 

 with white ; there is no indication of a chest-band, the chest 

 being black, the feathers edged with sandy-buff; the breast and 

 abdomen barred with black and buffy-brown or white ; the 

 throat clear buff, spotted with black. 



Kange in Great Britain. A summer visitor only, inhabiting the 

 hilly districts of all three kingdoms, from Cornwall to Somer- 

 setshire, and found throughout the higher ground of England 

 and Wales, and almost the whole of Scotland and the outlying 

 islands, except the Shetlands, which it only visits on rare occa- 

 sions. 



Range outside the British Islands. Until quite recently there 

 was believed to exist but one species of Ring-Ouzel in Europe, 

 but the attention of ornithologists having been drawn by Dr. 

 Stejneger to the fact that the Ring-Ouzel of the Alps and 

 mountains of Central Europe was really a distinct species from 

 the bird which breeds in England and Scandinavia, this sub- 

 ject was investigated by Mr. Seebohm and Count Salvadori. 

 Both of them confirm the distinctness of the southern bird, 

 which must be known as Merula alpestris, Brehm, while Mr. 

 Seebohm considers the Ring-Ouzel of the Caucasus to be still 

 further different, and to be worthy of separation as Merula 

 orientalis, 



The Ring-Ouzel which visits Great Britain in summer is, 

 therefore, found on the continent in Scandinavia up to about 



