THE RING-OUZEL IN DERBYSHIRE. 9 



ten feet from the ground. The bird stayed about, so that I had 

 no difficulty in identification." I have never known of a nest of 

 this species in a bush, but St. John mentions a " low bush " as 

 its ordinary site (' Sport in Moray,' p. 103) ; and I gather that 

 the Rev. H. A. Macpherson regards a " stunted whin bush " as a 

 not uncommon position ('Birds of Cumberland,' p. 3) ; and Mr. 

 Howard Saunders says that " stunted bushes " are occasionally 

 chosen. In our dales the Ring- Ouzel generally chooses as a 

 nesting-site a corner in a precipitous rock, sometimes in an old 

 quarry. It is usually impossible to see any vestige of the nest 

 from below, and above it is generally screened from view by 

 overhanging herbage. 



Colour of Eggs. — As on one occasion I mistook a typical 

 boldly marked egg of a Ring-Ouzel for that of a Blackbird, being 

 misled by the nest (which was built of moss and placed on the 

 top of a patch of bilberry), I can hardly object to Lord Lilford's 

 statement (' Birds of Northamptonshire,' vol. i. p. 101) that the 

 eggs of the Ring-Ouzel " very closely resemble some varieties of 

 the Blackbird." It is quite true that eggs of the former bird may 

 be found which are hardly distinguishable from those of the latter, 

 and less rarely from those of the Missel-Thrush. I also possess 

 eggs of the Song-Thrush which are very like a variety of Ring- 

 Ouzel's. Altogether there are in my collection some two dozen 

 varieties of these eggs, but in some cases they are not very distinct 

 from one another. The typical egg has a ground colour of 

 slightly greenish blue, rather paler than is usual in the Song- 

 Thrush's egg. It is boldly marked with blotches of chestnut-red, 

 and fainter ones of a dull purplish colour. A distinct variety has 

 the ground colour evenly tinted with very pale reddish brown, 

 marked similarly to the typical egg. In some varieties the 

 ground colour is greener than in the typical egg ; in some it is 

 very pale indeed. In some the markings are very large and bold, 

 in others they are reduced to small irregular spots or freckles 

 the underlying marks often being a pale shade of chestnut-red, 

 and not purplish at all. One variety is very curious. Apparently 

 the ground colour is dirty white, but the whole surface of the egg 

 is thickly covered with very fine freckles of rusty brown. In 

 shape they are either sharply pointed at one end, long and 

 bluntly pointed, perfectly oval, or almost spherical. 



