10 



Adult Male in winter (Belgrade, Turkey, September 26th). Differs from the male in summer dress merely 

 in having the feathers on the upper parts rather more broadly margined with brown; the gorget is dull 

 white, and the bill is horn-brown, with the base of the lower mandible dull yellow. 



Adult Female in ivinter. Differs from the summer dress merely in being rather browner in tone of colour, 

 and the feathers on the upper parts have the margins rather broader. 



Young Female in winter (Silesia). Upper parts warm brown, the feathers margined with dull yellowish 

 olive ; quills and larger wing-coverts broadly margined with white tinged with buff; underparts warm 

 brown, the feathers very broadly margined with buffy white, these margins being nearly pure white on 

 the middle of the abdomen, and tinged with buffy brown on the throat and flanks ; pectoral gorget 

 scarcely indicated ; nearly all the feathers below the gorget with the median white patch as well as the 

 margins : legs brown, the fore part of the tarsus yellowish; bill dark horn-brown. 



In summer plumage the northern and southern forms are easily separable, as Turdus torquatus has the 

 feathers almost or entirely devoid of white margins, whereas T. alpestris has broad margins to the 

 feathers on the underparts below the white collar, and besides many of the feathers have white centres. 

 In autumn and winter dress both forms have white margins to the feathers on the underparts, but 

 whereas these margins are narrow in T. torquatus, and there are no median white patches on the 

 feathers, in T. alpestris the margins are much broader, and some, if not most, of the feathers on the 

 underparts, and more especially the under tail-coverts, have conspicuous white median patches. 



The difference between summer and winter plumage is much greater in T. torquatus than it is in 

 T. alpestris; indeed, in the latter species the white margins to the feathers on the underparts are quite 

 as broad in the summer dress, if not broader than they are in the winter plumage. Dr. Stejneger 

 surmises that the young birds of the two forms differ already in nestling plumage; but this I have 

 not been able to decide, as, in spite of every endeavour, I have not succeeded in obtaining the young 

 of T. alpestris in nestling plumage. 



The present species is a southern and alpine form of our northern Ring-Ousel, inhabiting the 

 mountain-ranges of Southern and Central Europe and Asia Minor during the summer season, 

 and migrating to the lowlands or to countries further south in the winter, though in some 

 localities they are said to remain throughout the year. It is said to occur in the French and 

 Spanish Pyrenees, but I have not had an opportunity of examining a specimen from either of 

 these countries. It is, however, certainly the species which inhabits the mountains of 

 Switzerland. 



Mr. Howard Saunders writes (Ibis, 1891, p. 162) that " it was fairly plentiful in the Jura, 

 where some nests were still being built on May 23rd, when a few already contained young birds, 

 and I saw a brood on the wing by June 2nd. The nest is placed on the branch of a spruce — ■ 

 generally one which is thickly hung with moss and lichen — and near the stem ; seldom as low 

 down as 15 feet, while often 40 feet or more from the ground — very different from the lowly 

 positions affected by this species in the British Islands. The adult male attracts attention by 

 sitting on the top of a tall fir and uttering vigorously his scolding telt, tett, tett. The bill in 

 this mountain race is decidedly yellower than in average British examples, but much paler than 

 the orange colour of the Blackbird. In autumn the Ring-Ousel may be seen on the rowan-trees, 

 and among the vineyards by the lakes, until the end of October." 



