BIHDS 



397 



the autum migration takes the ring-ousels to the forests of the south of Europe, 

 Asia Minor, Persia, and North Africa, which abound in berries. March and April 

 are the months of their return to the breeding-area, in which they take up their 

 quarters among trees of medium size, and marshy pastures where heaps of rubbish 

 and isolated stones invite them to perch, sing, and nest. In such places, and in the 

 north also among tall heather, the hen makes her compact nest of dry twigs, stalks, 

 moss, and grass, plastering it together with mud. At the end of May or beginning 

 of June this contains four or five eggs. The ring-ousel is a quiet and peaceable 

 bird, with little fear of man ; it moves over the ground in long hops, lives on the 

 same food as other thrushes, and sings its loud and melodious, though somewhat 

 melancholy, song in the early morning. This bird is 11 inches long, and brownish 

 black in plumage with a crescent-shaped white band on its chest. 



The warblers are represented by the hedge-sparrow as far as 

 the latitude of northern Norway, and by the barred warbler in 

 central Sweden, while the garden-warbler ranges rather farther north. The 

 blackcap and both whitethroats are found in Lapland ; but southern Scandinavia 

 forms the northern boundary of the range of the two reed-warblers. The marsh- 

 warbler is rare in the north of Denmark, the water-warbler becomes scarce in 

 northern Germany, while the sedge-warbler reaches 68° N. latitude, and is thus the 

 most northerly of the group. The river-warbler ranges as far north as Lake Ladoga, 

 but the grasshopper-warbler is more of a southern species ; the tree-warbler reaches 

 the northern limit of its range in central Sweden, as does the willow-wren, 

 although the latter now and then wanders near the Arctic Circle, or even beyond 

 In Sweden the wood-wren becomes very rare, although the chitt'chafF is still met 

 with in the north of that country. The goldcrest lives wherever there are firs of 

 sufficient size, but the firecrest, which is more at home among pines, does not range 

 so far north. The range of the wren extends to the Arctic Circle. 



Titmice, Although the coal-tit does not range farther north than the 



Larks, etc. latitude of Lapland, the marsh-tit has a wider distributional area, and 

 visits Iceland, northern Scandinavia, and northern Russia. The blue tit reaches 

 the latitude of Finland, the crested tit that of southern Sweden, while the long- 

 tailed tits range well into the northern countries. The nuthatch wanders as far 

 north as the Arctic Circle wherever the trees are large enough, its northern repre- 

 sentative being spread over northern Asia as well. Like the creeper, it may be 

 numbered among the birds breeding in northern Europe, but it does not range to 

 the extreme north. The same is the case with the larks, the wood-lark reaching 

 central Sweden, and the crested lark Livonia and Finland. The blue wagtail is 

 likewise indigenous to the north of Europe and Asia; the white wagtail ranges 

 into Greenland, Iceland, and Lapland, but its central European relative the grey 

 wagtail begins to be rare in northern Germany. Although the tree-pipit is 

 found bej'ond the Arctic Circle, the tawny pipit is unknown north of central 

 Sweden ; and in Norway and Iceland the meadow-pipit occurs. 



Of all groups of perching birds the finches are the most numer- 

 ously represented in the far north, and although the house-sparrow is 

 unknown beyond the limit of cornfields, the tree-sparrow ranges a little higher. 

 The latitude of central Sweden forms the limit of the hawfinch, but the chaffinch 



