100 THE BIRDS OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



the bird in Northamptonshire so late in the year. I 

 should put the average date of their appearance with 

 us at about October 3rd ; they seldom remain more 

 than a few days, and are generally to be found year 

 after year in greater or smaller numbers in or about 

 the same spot, though this depends of course on the 

 abundance or scarcity of their favourite food — hips 

 and haws, blackberries, &c. I have several records 

 of the occurrence of this bird in various parts of the 

 county, and have no doubt that it is often mistaken 

 for a Blackbird, to wdiich in shape, size, and flight it 

 bears a close resemblance, though the alarm-note of 

 the rarer bird is a sufficient means of distinction. 

 Morton says of the Ring-Ouzel : — " A bird usually 

 conversant about the rocks and steep cliffs of high 

 mountains. With us it has bred in bushes on the 

 sides of a pretty steep valley between Clipston and 

 Marston, in Clipston Lordship. We shot a cock 

 Ring-Ouzel there on April 6, 1710." It is difficult 

 to make out from this w^hether our old county his- 

 torian intends to convey that he considers the fact 

 of his finding a Ring-Ouzel on April 6th as sufficient 

 proof that it had a nest in the locality, but I incline 

 to think not, and that he had actually known of a nest, 

 though he gives us no particulars. The favourite 

 and usual summer haunts of this species are wild 

 hilly moorlands, rocky mountain-sides, and glens : 

 it is especially abundant on Dartmoor, a locality 

 eminently suited to its habits, I also found it common 

 on the Cheshire Moors near Buxton, and in all parts 

 of Scotland that I have visited for grouse-shooting. 

 The nest, which is usually built of fine tw^igs of 

 heather and lined with dry grass, is built on, or quite 

 close to, the ground, among large fragments of rock 

 or in a tuft of rank heather amongst stones ; the eggs 



