OCCASIONAL NOTES. 267 
are said to have wintered, I venture to remark that two (Norfolk and 
Salop) ought to be struck off; for though, in Norfolk, they were seen 
in severe frost, that frost might have been early in November, before 
they had all migrated; and, in Salop, my bird might have been wounded, 
or may have migrated after 1 saw it. At any rate I never saw it 
again, nor have I seen any others all the winter since, though I have 
kept a sharp look out. In the autumn of 1877 the crop of mountain 
ash and hawthorn berries was very abundant and the weather very mild, 
but the Ring Ouzels only stayed ten days later than their usual time, 
with the exception of two, and those I saw for the last time on the 
2nd December. As far, therefore, as this county is concerned, I think 
they must be considered summer migrants, occasionally, but rarely, 
stopping till late in autumn, perhaps even through the winter.— WILLIAM 
EK. Becxwitu (Eaton Constantine, Salop). 
Ringe OvuzEL NestiInG IN Essex.—My friend Mr. C. E. Bishop, of 
Wickham, Essex, tells me that on the 10th May he found a Ring Ouzel 
sitting upon four eggs in that parish. The nest he describes as placed 
almost upon the ground among rough herbage, about a foot from the edge 
of a ditch, and a few yards from the River Blackwater. The eggs he 
describes as more boldly spotted than is usual with Blackbird’s. Only the 
hen bird has been seen, and she is—or was lately—still sitting. I may add 
that Mr. Bishop has collected eggs and observed birds from childhood, and 
is not likely to be mistaken.—H. M. Wattts (Holmesdale, Southern Hill, 
Reading). 
Sone or THE Rine Ovzen.—If I do not err, the song of the Ring 
Ouzel has not been often, if ever before, noted in the South of England. 
It was therefore an unexpected pleasure to me to hear it lately (April 18th), 
without any possibility of mistake. I was walking along the lane between 
Bloxworth and Winterbourne Tomson, and on the top of a not very high 
solitary tree were two birds, one of which was singing away merrily. 
The shelter of the hedge enabled me to get almost underneath the tree 
unobserved, when, to my surprise, the birds proved to be a pair of Ring 
Ouzels. The male continued to sing until some minutes after, when, 
disturbed by my movements, they both flew to another tree about fifty yards 
off, where the song was immediately resumed. If I had not proved the 
bird singing to be a Ring Ouzel [ should have unhesitatingly concluded it 
to have been a Blackbird; its notes were equally full and mellow, but with 
rather less compass, and not quite so much variety in the strain.—O. P. 
CamsripdGx (Bloxworth, Blandford). 
Scnavontan GREBE IN BeprorpsHire.—A specimen of the Sclayonian 
Grebe was shot near Bedford during the last week in February. It was an 
adult bird in perfect winter dress.—C. Marranw Prior (Bedford). 
