KING-OUZEL'S NEST. 



CHAPTER III 

 THE RING-OUZEL 



WHEN the hedgerows grow green with buds at the end of 

 April, and the sealike marshes are green with springing 

 oats, small flocks of ring-ouzels come over the gleaming 

 sandhills from the sea and scatter over the fields. 



You may know this bird from afar, for he is not so 

 vulgarly " smart " as the blackbird, and is a lover of the 

 open fields. The blackbird skulks in the hedgerow or 

 beneath the pendant fruit crops, but not so the ring-ouzel ; 

 for, though a great lover of fruit, he leaves the hedgerow 

 and seeks his food afield. You may see them in early 

 spring on any of the marshes by the sea feeding upon 

 worms ; and should you disturb them, they will, blackbird- 

 like, fly off to the hedgerow, where they occasionally build 

 their blackbird-like nest and lay their starling-like eggs, 

 scant of spots. 



But the ring-ouzel is not common in the Broadland, and 

 beyond a few flocks in the early spring, and scattered wan- 

 derers a little later when the ivy is in bloom, and a very 

 few nesting couples, he soon leaves the marshlands for the 



