THE RING-OUZEL. 149 



of various growth about the place. The song-thrush, too, is 

 scarce. In some parts of France, Switzerland, and Italy, I have 

 observed the blackbird to be common. 



THE RING-OUZEL. 



Rock or Mountain Blackbird. Rock Starling. 



Turdus torquatus, Linn. 



Is found during summer in suitable localities over the 

 island. 



From the south to the north of Ireland the ring-ouzel is a sum- 

 mer inhabitant of certain haunts, which wholly differ in their 

 character from those frequented by the other British thrushes, and 

 render it little known except to the student of nature, or to the 

 visitor of the wild and rocky mountain scenery.* To my ear its 

 call-note is extremely pleasing, from association in the mind with 

 the free spirit of nature, with localities which own not, — and 

 never will own, — man's dominion. The ring-ouzel is truly a 

 " tenant of the wild." It first became familiar to me in the glens 

 or ravines cleft in the range of mountains lying westward of Bel- 

 fast, every one of which, that displayed wild romantic beauty in 

 an eminent degree, boasted its pair or more of these birds, whose 

 haunts were always where the cliffs or banks were loftiest, and 

 where the cascade formed a picturesque accompaniment to the 

 scene. Within the distance of five or six miles were as many of 

 these localities thus resorted to, and where only, throughout the 

 district, the birds were to be found, except at the periods of their 

 migratory movements. When walking in the Crow Glen, one of 

 these haunts, on a summer evening in 1829, with my pointer dog 



* When observing the two other fine species of European rock-thrush — Turdus 

 saxatilis and T. cyaneus — about the Alps of Switzerland and Italy, the former of 

 which was particularly conspicuous in the wild rocky defiles of the Rhigi, I could not 

 but wish that, like the ring-ouzel, they also were visitants to Ireland. Two indivi- 

 duals of the T. saxatilis have of late years been obtained in England. See Yarr. 

 Brit. Birds. Supp. to 1st edit, and 2nd edit. 



