Notes on the Grey-zvinged Ouzel.



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NOTES ON THE GREY-WINGED OUZEL


Merula boulboul.


By Arthur G. Butter, Pli.D., F.E.S., F.Z.S., etc.


In his account of this Blackbird published in 1898 the late

Dr. Karl Russ observes :—


“Although it is tolerably common and is frequently kept

in cages by the Hindoos, it nevertheless counts as one of the

rarest foreign visitors to our market. It has only arrived once at

the Zoological Gardens of Eondon ; the catalogues of the others,

and even of the Amsterdam Gardens, do not include it. Only a

single time, to my knowledge, in the course of years, has it been

received in the trade, and then it was imported by Chas. Jamrach

of Rondou.”


I believe it was in 1902 that our Member Mr. H. W. Harper

imported some hand-reared specimens of this species, one of

which was exhibited in our gardens (though not for the first time,

as inadvertently stated in Avic. Mag., N. S. Vol. I., p. 215) on July

16th, 1902 : it was previously recorded under its synonym of

Turdus poecilopterus. In 1903 Mr. Harper gave a specimen to our

Editor, and in 1904 he gave other examples to me and Mr.

W. T. Page.


My specimen was exhibited at the Crystal Palace late in

the y^ear 1903, and came into my hands on February 13th, 1904.

Until the winter was well over I kept it in a cage indoors; then,

as Mr. Allen Silver kindly took the trouble to obtain for me a

healthy hen Blackbird, I turned out the pair into my larger

garden aviary, in the hope that I should induce them to breed.

Mr. Seth-Smith made a similar attempt with his bird, but found

it somewhat aggressive towards other inhabitants of the aviarjq

and consequently deposited it in the Zoological Gardens.


During the whole of 1904, and up to the end of February

1905, my Grey-winged Ouzel amused himself by fighting a cock

Blackbird through the wirework of the aviary: the English bird

was evidently attracted by the hen, which it followed over the

outside of the structure, showing off and singing to her whenever

not occupied in battling with her quite indifferent husband, who



