350 THE KIXG OUZEL. 



sings the forester in The Lady of the Lake ; and most of the 

 Scottish poets allude to the Blackbird under this title ; thus, 

 GRAHAME says 



" List to the Merle's dulcet pipe ! melodious bird ! 

 Who, hid behind the milk-white hawthorn's spray, 

 Whose early flowers anticipate the leaf, 

 Welcomes the time of buds, the infant year." 



Several of the older English poets, too, thus distinguish " the 

 Golden Bill," as he is often called. DRAYTON, for instance, says 



'* Upon the dulcet pipe the Merle doth only play." 

 SHAKSPEARE gives us another variation of the term Ouzel, 

 when he says of 



" The Woosel-cock, so black of hue, 

 With orange tawny bill." 



142. THE RING OUZEL. 



Turdus Torquatus, LIN. Merle a Plastron Blanc, BUF. Der Ring- 

 drossel, BECH. 



Description. This bird, which is somewhat larger than the 

 Blackbird, is ten inches and a half in length, of which the 

 tail measures nearly four inches. The beak is almost one 

 inch long, and in colour horn-black, except on the under side 

 near the root, and at the corners, where it is yellow. The 

 colour of the plumage is black, the feathers on the belly and 

 wing coverts being edged with white ; the pen and outer tail 

 feathers with grey. A reddish white transverse stripe, about 

 the breadth of a finger, crosses the upper portion of the breast, 

 from which the bird derives its name. 



In the female the plumage has a lighter tinge, or is inclined 

 to brown, and the stripe on the breast is narrower, less dis- 

 tinct, and reddish grey, clouded with brown. Those birds 

 which have in other respects the plumage of the female, yet 

 in which the stripe on the breast is distinct, are young males ; 

 those in which it is hardly visible, young females. 



Observations. The Ring Ouzel is a European bird, which 

 breeds only in the north, and at the commencement of the 

 cloudy weather in October and November, comes in small flocks 

 to Germany, where it frequents the woody and mountainous 

 districts. It may be taken with nooses and springes. Its food, 

 both when wild and in the aviary, is the same as that of the 



