RINGOUSEL. 51 



The next rare birds (which were procured for me last week) 

 were some ringousels, turdi torquati. 



This week twelvemonths a gentleman from London, being 

 with us, was amusing himself with a gun, and found, he told 

 us, on an old yew hedge, where there were berries, some birds 

 like blackbirds, with rings of white round their necks ; a 

 neighbouring farmer also at the same time observed the same ; 

 but, as no specimens were procured, little notice was taken. I 

 mentioned this circumstance to you in my letter of November 

 the 4th, 1767 ; you, however, paia but small regard to what 

 1 said, as I had not seen these birds myself : but last week 

 the aforesaid farmer, seeing a large flock, twenty or thirty of 

 these birds, shot two cocks and two hens ; and says, on 

 recollection, that he remembers to have observed these birds 

 again last spring, about Ladyday, as it were, on their return 

 to the north. Now, perhaps these ousels are not the ousels 

 of the north of England, but belong to the more northern parts 

 of Europe ; and may retire before the excessive rigour of the 

 frosts in those parts ; and return to breed in spring, when the 

 cold abates. If this be the case, here is discovered a new 

 bird of winter passage, concerning whose migrations the 

 writers are silent ; but if these birds should prove the ousels 

 of the north of England, then here is a migration disclosed 

 within our own kingdom never before remarked. It does not 

 yet appear whether they retire beyond the bounds of our 

 island to the south ; but it is most probable that they usually 

 do, or else one cannot suppose that they would have continued 

 so long unnoticed in the southern counties.* The ousel is 

 larger than a blackbird, and feeds on haws ; but last autumn 

 (when there were no haws) it fed on yew-berries ; in the 

 spring it feeds on ivy-berries, which ripen only at that season, 

 in March and April. 



in the manner goldfinches frequently are ; they were extremely docile ; 

 would come to the call for the sake of a fly, of which they were extremely 

 fond ; when raw meat was given them, would endeavour to fasten it to 

 some part of their cage in order to tear it ; would eat mice and small 

 birds cut in pieces, leathers, fur, and bones, disgorging the refuse like 

 the hawk tribe. One was killed by swallowing too large a quantity of 

 mouse fur, which it could not eject. ED. 



* The ring-blackbird, as Selby informs us, is a bird of passage. It 

 arrives in this country in the spring, and immediately resorts to its 

 breeding quarters in the mountainous districts of England and Scotland, 

 preferring the most barren retreats. It migrates in the end of October 

 to France and Germany, but is said to be found in Africa and Asia under 

 different degrees of latitude. ED. 



