NOTES AND QUERIES. 387 
Ring Ouzel feeding on Cherries (p. 346).—I have lived nearly forty 
years in a district in which the Ring Ouzel breeds almost as abundantly as 
the Blackbird. They are only too pertinacious and too destructive in my 
garden, and the gardens of my parishioners and others throughout this 
district. They come in by dozens if left undisturbed for a day or two, and 
they are distinctly bolder than the Blackbird. Cherries, strawberries, 
currants (black and red), raspberries, gooseberries, and plums, all are 
attacked by them, and I have to wage a perpetual war on them and the 
Blackbirds to prevent the plunder of my garden to the extent of one-half or 
more. The Blackbirds generally make a precipitate retreat on being 
disturbed after having been shot at a few times; the Ring Ouzel or (as 
he is called here) Moor Blackbird retreats only to the nearest wall or a 
fruit-tree, where he keeps up a frequent cry of disapprobation. The 
bilberries ripened late this year, and the Moor Blackbirds were in the 
garden as early as towards the latter part of July; then, after the bilberries 
were exhausted, they came in again in numbers, as usual. As to their 
breeding-places here, I should say that the majority breed near the edge of 
the moor, and very few in proportion on its more remote parts. I have 
frequently seen these birds on the open moor about the last week in 
August, when they, to all appearance, are preparing for their southward 
migration. I was, however, over a large area of moorland on August 31st 
without seeing a single bird of this species, the edges of that area having to 
my knowledge furnished breeding-places for, I dare say, nearer a hundred 
couples than half that number, and food during the bilberry season for any 
reasonable number. In my walks to and from a distant chapel-of-ease 
along a customary track or rough road, I used, three or four weeks since, 
to disturb half-a-dozen to half-a-score within a space of 100 yards, and all 
the stones and tracks near testified to the aggregate number feeding about 
by the countless deep purple stains occasioned by their droppings. — J. C. 
Arxtnson (Danby, near Cleveland). 
Discovery of the Eggs of the Knot.—I beg to enclose an extract of a 
letter to me from Lieut. A. W. Greely, U.S.A., referring to this subject, 
which extends into rather more detail than the note by Dr. Hart Merriam 
in the July number of ‘The Auk,’ reprinted with comments in ‘ The 
Zoologist’ for September :—‘‘ Washington, D.C., May 25th, 1885. My dear 
Major Feilden,—I have had it in mind many a day to tell you how a Knot’s 
egg looks, but my strength is not equal to all demands, and I have been 
silent. In the egg-sac of a Knot were found twenty-one eggs, all sizes, 
including one completely-formed egg with hard shell. Its longer axis was 
1-10 in., and the shorter about 1:0 in. The ground-colour was light pea- 
green, closely spotted with small brown specks about the size of a pin’s 
RU cic. 5, = —A. W. Grerty.” It would therefore appear that the 
members of the Greely Expedition had no better luck in finding the actual 
