HBDGE-SPAILROTf. 



page, and I am fearful of absorbing too much of my space 

 adding more. Fig. 11, plate II. 



44. RING OUZEL. (Turdns torquatus). 



Ring Thrush, Moor Blackbird, Mountain Blackbird, Tor Ouzel, 

 Rock Ouzel, Ring Blackbird. A bold abusive freebooter in our 

 gardens in North Yorkshire, and other similar localities. He's a 

 beautiful bird, and a wary, except when seduced by strawberries 

 and red currants. His wild and not unmusical note, though it 

 might sound harsh in a trim garden in Kent or Essex, and to an 

 ear not attuned to moorland sounds, is always as welcome to me as 

 the gentler twitter of the Swallow. I like to hear his attempts 

 at song, reminding the listener of the Missel-bird's early spring 

 music. And I like to hear his wilder, grating call-note, which is 

 the usual warning the ornithologist has that the Moor Blackbird 

 has returned for the season. His nest is very like the Blackbird's 

 in design and general structure. An inner lining of bents and 

 fine ling, a wall of clay, and an outer husk of moss, ling, and 

 such like moorland matters. It is not strongly or compactly 

 formed, and makes a great litter if kept a day or two and 

 subject to be handled or moved, however carefully. It is always 

 built on, or near the ground, on the wild moor; and I once trod 

 the feathers out of the wing of a sitting hen, on whom and her 

 nest I nearly trod in leaping a gully. The eggs are usually four 

 or five in number, and remind you of the Blackbird's eggs in 

 their general appearance ; but the blotchings or marking* are 

 redder, and often much larger or more pronounced than in the 

 case of the Blackbird. Their eggs, too, vary generally in size, 

 even in the same nest. Out of the contents of two nests I had 

 brought to me a year or two since, no two seemed to agree 

 exactly in dimensions. Fig. 12, plate II. 



45. GOLDEN ORIOLE. (Orwlus galbula}. 

 Only an unaccustomed summer visitor. 

 IV. SYLVIADJB. 



46. ALPINE ACCENTOR, (Accentor alpinus). 

 Met with two or three times in Britain. 



47. HEDGE-SPARROW. (Accentor modularis). 

 Hedge-warbler, Shuffle-wing, Duimock, Hem^ie. I cannot 



call it Hedge-accentor, with all my respect for jVIr. Yarrell. It 

 was Hedge-sparrow in my childhood and youth, and Hedge- 

 sparrow to me it will be called to the end' of the chapter. J 

 could no more wantonly kill a Hedge-sparrow, in my sparrow- 

 1h;m -a "Hobin : nnd now. whon I hear his low. sweet 



