THE RING-OUZEL. 243 



MERULA TORQUATA. 

 THE RING-OUZEL. 



(PLATE 8.) 



Turdus uierula torquata, Briss. Orn. ii. p. 235 (1760). 



Turdus torquatus, Linn, Syst. Nat. i. p. 296 (1766) ; et auctorum plurimorum 

 Gmelin, Latham, Pallas, Temminck, Gray, Newton, Sharpe, Dresser, (Gould), &c. 

 Merula torquata (Linn.), Boie, Isis, 1822, p. 552. 

 Sylvia torquata (Linn.), Savi, Orn. Tosc. i. p. 206 (1827). 

 Copsichus torquatus (Linn.), Kaup, Natiirl. Syst. p. 157 (1829). 

 Thoracocincla torquata (Linn.), Reich. Nat. Syst. pi. xliii. (1850). 



The range of the Ring-Ouzel in Great Britain is pretty much restricted 

 to the moorland wastes and northern mountains. In the south of 

 England the bird is seen on spring and autumn migration, and breeds in 

 one or two localities, notably on Dartmoor. It has also been known to 

 breed in Cornwall, Kent, Suffolk, Norfolk, Warwick, and Leicester, and 

 in a few of the Welsh mountain-districts. From Derbyshire northwards 

 the Ring-Ouzel is a common bird on the moors, extending its range to the 

 Scottish Highlands, but is only seen on autumn migration in the Orkney 

 and Shetland Islands. Curiously enough, on the Outer Hebrides the bird 

 is unknown ; and even on the innermost western isles it is a rare bird, 

 although the ground seems eminently suitable to it. Throughout Ireland 

 in all suitable localities it is commonly found. Upon the European con- 

 tinent the Ring-Ouzel is a summer visitant to the bare rocky portions of 

 the pine-districts ; yet in most of the mountainous districts of the south 

 which the birds pass on migration numbers remain to breed. But it does 

 not appear to range further east than the Ural Mountains. Its winter- 

 quarters are the lowlands and alpine districts of South Europe, North 

 Africa, Asia Minor, and Persia. 



The Ring-Ouzel is an especial favourite with most ornithologists not 

 so much from its rarity as from the localness of its distribution, and not 

 so much from any thing specially interesting in its appearance or habits 

 as from the romantic scenery of its breeding-grounds. It may be said to 

 be a mountain form of the Blackbird. The lowland species seldom ascends 

 the hills more than a thousand feet, where it is replaced by the Ring-Ouzel. 

 In the Caucasus the Ring-Ouzel frequents the rhododendron region, seven 

 thousand feet % above the level of the sea; and when I was toiling up the 

 steep ascent o*f the North Cape in Norway, in lat. 71^, I amused myself 

 Avith watching the Ring-Ouzels on the rocks. As it is not recorded from 

 Archangel, and Harvie-Brown and I did not meet with it in the valley of 



