In Hie Neighbourhood of Salisbury. 



193 



Turdus Merula. "The Blackbird;' or "Colly Bird," as it is 

 called in Somerset. Also a plaintive and beautiful songster, much 

 more destructive to fruit, however, than the last, and not quite so 

 much to be said in its favour in other ways. More abundant in 

 winter than in summer, its numbers appearing greater either from 

 fresh importations from more northern districts, or the local birds 

 socking' more visibly the companionship and protection of man. 

 In mowing the grass in my Churchyard one summer I very nearly 

 mowed off the head of a hen bird sitting hard on its nest and eggs, 

 which was built simply in a depression on the ground. 



Tardus Pilaris. "The Fieldfare/' or "Pigeon Felt." The 

 school-boy's delight, and very good in a bird-pie. The other day I 

 saw a curious cream-coloured specimen of this bird, the only bird I 

 have come across which has varied from its normal and handsome 

 plumage. No sound speaks to you so clearly and yet so cheerfully 

 of winter, as the familiar and harsh double note of the Fieldfare, as 

 it flies high above your head in the clear sky, or takes its flight, one 

 by one, from the topmost branches of the trees from which you have 

 scared it. 



Turdus Iliacus. " The Redwing." First cousin and bosom com- 

 panion of the last, enlivening our fields and hedge-rows at a season 

 when we most need it, but not condescending to breed with us, 

 perchance being jealous of its congener, the Thrush — so like it to the 

 casual observer, and so superior to it in song, though in its northern 

 home the Redwing can sing too. 



Turdus Torquatus. " The Ring Ouzel." This bird cannot be said 

 to be uncommon in Wiltshire during the spring and autumn migra- 

 tions. It is a bird which always gives one pleasure to turn and 

 notice, affording you a pleasant surprise at finding, that what you 

 the first moment thought was but a Blackbird, was, after all our far 

 rarer visitor. It can almost at once be distinguished, however, from 

 its congener, Turdus Merula, by the more jerky manner of its flight, 

 its greater proportionate length of tail, and the almost universal 

 " tuk," or " tak," it gives vent to, as you surprise it from its lurk- 

 ing-place, and which you feel could never have issued from a Black- 

 bird's larynx. I have noticed it several times in our immediate 



