8 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



on examining it, I discovered the beginnings of a nest. When, 

 however, I next visited the place, the nest was completed, but a 

 hen Blackbird was sitting on it. I am convinced that there are 

 only two ways of identifying King- Ouzels' eggs, and one is by 

 seeing the parent bird leave the nest, or anxiously hanging around 

 in its proximity. If this fails, and an egg is taken from a nest, 

 the only other plan is to visit it again when the young birds are 

 feathered. In 1890 I found a Blackbird's nest containing three 

 eggs in the middle of Glossop Moor. Its situation and the 

 materials of which it was built would have naturally led me to 

 take for granted that it belonged to a Ring-Ouzel, but I saw a 

 hen Blackbird leave it, and I heard her well-known cry. 



Before leaving this part of my subject I must quote a curious 

 incident from my notes for May 11th, 1895 : — " On the moorland 

 path between Ramsley Lodge and Curbar I met Mr. Peat. Just 

 where we met was a Grouse's nest close to the path. It was 

 peculiar-looking, being partly made of mud ; and he told me its 

 history as follows : A Ring- Ouzel built the nest, and began to lay 

 in it. To his surprise he one day found a Grouse's egg in the 

 nest, and thought that someone had put it in for amusement ; 

 but the Grouse continued to lay in it, so he removed the Ring- 

 Ouzel's eggs. To-day there were six Grouse's eggs in the some- 

 what flattened-out Ouzel's nest." 



Situation of Nest. — On the moors the usual place for the nest 

 is on a sloping heathery bank, the nest being well concealed 

 among the heather. It is often found near a brook, not because 

 the birds prefer to be near water, but the brook has cut deep 

 down into the peat, and thus has furnished a convenient slope. 

 Banks by a moorland roadside, the sides of hollows, the steep 

 and rugged declivities which always occur below the " edges," — 

 all these are taken advantage of. Once, when looking for Sand- 

 Martins' nests, I found that of a Ring- Ouzel in a sand-pit. Mr. 

 Peat has never come across the nest in a tree or bush, but in 

 1887 I chanced on one which was placed in a fir tree a few feet 

 from the ground ; and in 1895, in the same locality, my friend 

 Mr. Allan R. Wilson saw one in a similar situation. He has 

 kindly sent me a copy of the entry in his notes, which runs as 

 follows : — " In one of the stunted trees, just the Sheffield side of 

 Stanedge Pole, I found a Ring-Ouzel's nest with four eggs about 



