RNITHOLOGIST 
— AN D— 
OOLOGIST. 
$1.50 per 
Single Copy 


—o — — 
FRANK B. WEBSTER, PuBLisHER. 
Annum. Established, March, 1875. 15 Cents. 
BOSTON, MASS., MAY, 1886. No. 5. 
WOL. XI. 
The Ring Ouzel. 
(Turdus torquatus.) 
BY HENRY KERR, BACUP, LANCASHIRE, ENGLAND. 
This handsome member of the Thrush family, 
(Turdina,) is one of the earliest Spring visitors on 
the hills and mountains of north-east Lancashire, 
and it usually puts in an appearance immediately 
after the advent of the Wheatear, our earliest 
visitor. I first made the acquaintance of this in- 
teresting bird in north-east Lancashire. Derby- 
shire is about the southern breeding range of this 
species. In summer it nests plentifully among 
the hills and rocky gorges, leaving in October, 
making its way slowly to the southern coast, pre- 
vious to its over sea migration. As these birds go 
south in the fruit season they freely help them- 
selves to garden produce, and many of these fruit 
loving birds are killed by gardeners and_ fruit- 
growers. 
The Ring Ouzel, like its relations, the other 
Thrushes, have a variety of common names in 
different localities. It is called the Rock Ouzel, 
Ring Thrush, Mountain Blackbird and Moor 
Blackbird. In northeast Lancashire, southeast 
Yorkshire and the eastern border of Scotland it 
is best known by the latter name. It has a Euro- 
pean range from Norway to Spain, and is also 
found in north Africa and Syria, where it spends 
the winter. It is tolerably common in the moor- 
lands and mountains of Derbyshire, Yorkshire 
and the wilder parts of Northumberland and Dur- 
ham, as also found in Scotland. It is also found 
breeding freely in the mountains of Ireland; it is 
plentiful, as might be expected, in Wales. In 
cultivated districts this species is frequently found 
feeding in gardens, while on migration southward 
and it is also occasionally seen in similar localities 
while on its way north in spring to its breeding 
quarters. 

This bird is rather larger than the Blackbird, 
but its eggs are somewhat smaller although very 
similar in markings, and the nest and eggs, apart 

Copyright, 1886, by Eaton Cuirr and F. B. WEBSTER. 
from the locality, may be easily taken for those 
of the former bird, by those at least unfamiliar 
with the species. The bird has a rapid, steady 
flight, and except when near its nest it flies at a 
considerable height. Its food consists of worms, 
insects, snails, seeds, and wild fruits, such as the 
tillberry and the berries of the mountain ash and 
holly in autumn. The Ring Ouzel isnot much of 
a songster, but it is most vocally inclined when 
incubation is in progress. Its song mainly con- 
sists of afew plaintive notes, uttered in a clear, 
warbling whistle. The male bird, as already 
stated, sings best when his mate is hatching, and 
perched on a stone wall, boulder, or branch of a 
stunted tree not far from the nest, its pleasant 
note may frequently be heard. I have occasionally 
managed to get within a few yards of the male 
bird when in song, and unseen, listen to its low but 
pleasing notes. When the female is flushed from 
the nest she flies off a few yards and utters a grat- 
ing chatter and is most anxious until the intruder 
has departed. 
In this almost sub-alpine corner of Lancashire 
the bird under notice nests high upon the moors 
and heathery banks or amid masses of rock. The 
nest, which is a rather less, and a trifle more com- 
pact than that of the Blackbird, is built of fibrous 
roots, lined with clay, and an inner lining of dried 
The nest is also shallower than that of the 
last named species. The eggs, from three to four 
—I never found five in trifle 
smaller and more elongated than those of the 
Blackbird, and more profusely marked with 
brownish-yellow blotching on a_ greenish-blue 
ground. The eggs, as in many other species, fre- 
quently vary in size and markings. In this district 
the young are on the wing about the middle of 
July, and I believe the old birds rarely rear more 
than one brood. The Ring Ouzel derives its scien- 
tific name (torquatus) from the crescent-shaped 
white band on the neck, the rest of the plumage, 
except the wing-covers, being of a pure black, 
marked with faint crescent-shaped spots formed 
by the light edges of the feathers. The quills 
and wing-covers are shaped with grey and bor- 
grass. 
one nest—are a 
