248 



BRITISH BIRDS. 



on some mass of rock, or reel and tumble on the ground to decoy you 

 away. As you approach still closer, the anxiety of the female, if possible, 

 increases ; her cries, with those of her mate, disturb the birds around : 

 the Red Grouse, startled, skims over the shoulder of the hill to find 

 solitude ; the Moor-Pipit chirps anxiously by ; and the gay little Stonechat 

 flits uneasily from bush to bush. So long as you tarry near their treasure 

 the birds will accompany you, and, by using every artifice, endeavour to 

 allure or drive you away from its vicinity. Even when the nest is but 

 half built, the birds display remarkable attachment to it, as is also the case 

 with the Chaffinch ; and the same motions are gone through as though it 

 contained eggs or young birds. 



Upon leaving the nest the young birds are soon abandoned by their 

 parents, and fly about singly or in little parties in search of food. 



The general colour of the adult male is a uniform very dark brown, 

 approaching black, with the exception of a nearly white gorget extending 

 across the lower throat from shoulder to shoulder ; most of the feathers of 

 the body show traces of pale margins, more or less conspicuously. Bill 

 yellow; legs, feet, and claws brown; irides dark brown. The female 

 differs from the male in being much duller brown, and the white gorget 

 is suflFused with brown. Birds of the year have very broad margins to 

 the feathers of the underparts. In young females the gorget is scarcely 

 perceivable ; in young males it is also suffused with brown. Young in 

 nestling-plumage have the back and breast barred with black and pale 

 brown, and have ochraceous tips to the wing-coverts. 



The nearest relation of the Ring-Ouzel is imdoubtedly the Blackbird, 

 and the next nearest is the South-Chinese Ouzel {M. mandarina), all three 

 black -legged Ouzels. The White-collared Ouzel of the Himalayas bears 

 a superficial resemblance to the Ring-Ouzel ; but the pattern of its colour 

 is quite different, the white collar going completely round the neck ; and it 

 belongs, moreover, to the yellow-legged group of Ouzels. 



