81 
be found in a bush ог stunted tree, but never at any great elevation. Іп the heather on an 
embankment, where the soil has given way and left an abrupt edge, is a favourite place. Wherever 
there is a steep bank covered with high heath, whether it be sloping down to a stream or an old 
road, you may almost safely calculate on finding a nest every few hundred yards or so, always placed 
in the shelter of the highest heather (a foot high or more). Sometimes holes in the rock itself are 
chosen, where a few plants of heath have gained a footing and almost completely shelter the nest 
from view. Like the nests of all the Thrushes, that of the Ring-Ouzel undergoes three distinct 
stages before completion, and is always well and compactly constructed. 1615 made of coarse grass, 
with perhaps a few twigs of heather to bind the materials together; and a few withered leaves are 
sometimes added. This grass-formed nest is then lined with mud or clay from the neighbouring 
bogs or stream-banks. At this stage the nest is remarkably deep; but the thick lining of fine 
grass which is now added brings the nest to more even proportions. When examining the nest 
of this bird, its close resemblance to that of the Blackbird will be noticed. Indeed it would 
be almost impossible to discriminate between them, were we not aware that the Blackbird does 
not haunt the wild open moor. Іп the districts where the habitats of these two birds adjoin 
(the boundary of cultivation and the wild), nothing but a sight of the parent birds can make 
identification sure. 
“Тһе Ring-Ouzel lays four or five finely-marked eggs, bluish green in ground-colour, boldly 
and richly blotched with reddish brown, and sometimes streaked with dark brown. One variety is 
very elongated and very pale in ground-colour, the markings being represented by small specks, 
with a few splashes on the larger end. A second is almost round, intense bluish green in 
ground-colour, boldly yet sparingly blotched with surface-markings of purplish brown and pale 
dashes of purple. A third is brownish green in ground-colour, blotched, clouded, and spotted 
with pale reddish brown and light dashes of purple; while a fourth is similar in ground-colour, 
but has the brown markings chiefly on the larger end of the egg, where they form a broad zone, and 
is also streaked with dark wavy lines of brown. So closely do the eggs of this bird resemble those . 
of the Blackbird and the Fieldfare, that, were a series of the eggs of these three birds mixed 
promiscuously, it would be absolutely impossible to separate all of them correctly. Nevertheless, on 
an average, the Ring-Ouzels eggs have the ground-colour clearer, and are more boldly and richly 
marked, than those of the Blackbird. They vary in length from 1:35 to 1:08 inch, and іп breadth 
from 0:9 to 0-78 inch. 
* No birds defend their eggs or young with more matchless courage than the Ring-Ouzel. 
Approach their treasure, and, although you have no knowledge of its whereabouts, you speedily 
know that you are on sacred ground, or, more plainly speaking, on the nesting-site of this bird of 
the moor. Something sweeps suddenly round your head, probably brushing your face. You look 
round; and there the Ring-Ouzel, perched close at hand, is eying you wrathfully, and ready to do 
battle, despite the odds, for the protection of her abode. Move, and the attack is renewed, this 
time with loud and dissonant cries that wake the solitudes of the barren moor around. Undauntedly 
the birds fly round you, pause for a moment on some mass of rock, or reel and tumble on the 
ground to decoy you away. Ав 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. бо long as you tarry near their treasure the birds 
wil 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 voung birds. 
