34 OUR NATIVE SONGSTERS. 



the chorus of birds shall greet our cars. The 

 wind sweeps gently over the wild tlowers which 

 crown the rocky crag, and the rivulets whicli run 

 among the mountains are sparkling with diamonds, 

 and melodious with the whisperings of the wind 

 among the inishes, and with the trickling of its 

 waters on the green mosses. The moorland 

 spreads for miles away on the landscape, and wide 

 hilly tracts are sprinkled with the furze, which is 

 already golden, here and there, with the blossoms 

 of spring. It is in such jdaces that at this season 

 the wild shy Ring Ouzel* {Tardus torquatus) 

 resorts to place its nest in some secluded s})ot. 

 It has come from some wanner climate, and per- 

 chance since it was here last summer, it has seen 

 the sandy soil of Africa, gay with its brilliant 

 flowers, and passed over the sunny south, whose 

 dales and hills are brighter than those of our 

 island. But it would not linger there, but has 

 come to the rocky moors of colder lands to rear 



* The Ring Ouzel is eleven inches in length. The general 

 plumage is black, with a broad crescent of white across the 

 breast; the black feathers are generally margined with grey, 

 most broadly on the wings; the beak is yellow at the base and 

 black at the tip ; the feet are blackish. The female is coloured 

 like the male, but the hues are less pure. 



