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meeting of the Berwick Naturalists' Club in September 1834, Mr. Armstrong mentioned having 

 procured the nest of this bird from the hills in the neighbourhood of Wooler." 



Mr. Robert Gray observes : — " In many parts of Ayrshire and Argyleshire, especially wild 

 moorlands, where there is a mixture of heath and lichen-covered rocks, the Ring-Ouzel is very 

 plentiful in the breeding-season. Numbers of Ring-Ouzels breed in Dumbartonshire, Stirling- 

 shire, Ayrshire, Wigtownshire, and a few in the upper ward of Lanarkshire. They descend, as 

 the autumn advances, to the lower grounds, where they frequent gardens, and are not in general 

 looked upon as favourites, being then ' dingy and tuneless ' thieves, devouring cherries and 

 gooseberries with a keen relish, after a six months' experience of their winter diet. In October 

 they slip away southwards, and leave the west of Scotland by the Mull of Galloway, where young 

 birds occasionally lose their reckoning, and dash themselves against the lantern of the lighthouse. 

 I have never been able to trace this species on any of the outer Hebrides, although Mr. Yarrell 

 states that Mr. Bullock obtained its nest on some of the islands, probably, however, one of the 

 inner group. Mr. Elwes informs me that it has been occasionally found on Islay. It is likewise 

 an occasional visitant to Orkney, small flocks having been observed in 1822, 1829, and 1835. 

 Numbers appeared in these islands in October 1836. These occurrences seem to have escaped 

 Mr. Yarrell's notice." Mr. J. A. Harvie Brown writes to us: — "Tardus torguatus is a plentiful 

 species in most muirland districts of Scotland, and, according to my experience, particularly so 

 amongst the innumerable cliffs and heather-topped rocks of the west of Sutherland, which are 

 peculiarly adapted to the habits of the species. In the above district I have taken as many as 

 three nests of eggs in the course of an afternoon's stroll by the banks of a single mountain-burn. 

 In this county (Stirlingshire) they are very plentiful in certain localities, and in autumn come 

 down from the hills and frequent the farmers' gardens previous to their migration in winter." 

 Mr. A. G. More says that Mr. Dunn has informed him that it occasionally breeds in Hoy ; but 

 Dr. Saxby includes it among the "passing visitors" to Shetland. He remarks: — "Although I 

 have seen this bird in June, I have no proof that it breeds here. It is far from common." 

 Thompson writes very fully concerning the species in Ireland, where, he says, it is found during 

 summer in suitable localities over the island. " It breeds about the mountains of Dublin and 

 Wicklow, and is stated to appear there in flocks in spring and autumn, at the latter season to eat 

 the berries of the mountain-ash (Pyrus aucuparia). It is said to frequent the hills about 

 Portumna, on the western border of Galway ; and Mr. M'Calla states that a few breed in the 

 least frequented parts of the mountains of Connemara, where he has often searched in vain for 

 their nests, though satisfied that they were near ; for on leaving their supposed vicinity the old 

 birds followed him to a considerable distance, uttering their mournful notes. They are plentiful 

 in the autumn, evidently from migration, although never seen in flocks in spring, and are called 

 round-berry birds in that district, from the circumstance of their feeding on the berries of the 

 rowan or mountain-ash. Ring-Ouzels frequent the mountain-tops, Sheve-na-mon, &c, about 

 Clonmel (Tipperary), where the country-people call them cow-boys; and a few have been met 

 with in summer among the Comeragh Mountains, county of Waterford. This species is men- 

 tioned in the fauna of Cork as a summer visitant to the mountainous districts ; and is common 

 at that season in the most rocky parts of the mountains of Kerry, within a few miles of the 

 sea-coast, in the same haunts with Choughs and Eagles." 



