290 r TUHDID.E. 



me, as if desirous of advice in his extremity, but finding it 

 in vain, he at length ran up to me, when the birds, nothing 

 daunted, followed, and gave myself as well as two friends 

 who were with me, the same salute, flying so near that we 

 could almost have struck them with our hands. At the 

 beginning of the onset, a female bird appeared, as if inciting 

 the males forward, and continued until they attained the 

 highest pitch of violence." He goes on to say that if this 

 had been merely a case of a pair of birds protecting their 

 young or trying, to entice the intruders away, as the Eing- 

 Ouzel has been said to do, it would have been unworthy of 

 notice, but the assailants were both cocks. The chase of 

 the dog continued a considerable way, and for about fifteen 

 or twenty minutes. 



The nest is generally built on or near the ground, some- 

 times on a bank by the side of a stream, occasionally under 

 a rocky ledge, at the base of a stone, stump or bush, or 

 among heather which serves as a shelter. The nest, accord- 

 ing to Mr. Hewitson, though differently situated, is very 

 similar to that of the Blackbird, being " outwardly composed 

 of pieces of heather and coarse grass, with a slight layer 

 of clay, and thickly lined with fine dry grass" : the eggs, 

 four or five in number, are very like those of the Fieldfare 

 and Blackbird, but the markings have usually a bolder cha- 

 racter,* they measure from 1*3 to 1*03 by from *87 to '82 in. 

 The late Mr. Heysham has seen the young birds, near Carlisle, 

 fully fledged on the 15th of June. 



The food of this species is similar to that of the Black- 

 bird, consisting of earth-worms, slugs, insects, fruit, haws 

 and other berries, especially those of the yew and mountain - 

 ash in autumn, and of the ivy in spring. Sir William 

 Jardine, in a note to his last edition of White's ' Selborne,' 

 says of the Ring-Ouzel : " In autumn and before their 

 departure they visit the lower country, and remain a day or 



* Though it has been here attempted to describe the general appearance of the 

 eggs of each of these birds, as well as of the Mistletoe-Thrush and Redwing, 

 there are some specimens which would almost defy the best judge to refer posi- 

 tively to any one of the five species. 



