THE RING-OUZEL. 
149 
of various growth about the place. The song-thrush, too, is 
scarce. In some parts of Trance, Switzerland, and Italy, I have 
observed the blackbird to be common.. 
THE RING-OUZEL. 
Rock or Mountain Blackbird. Rock Starling. 
Turdus torquatus, Linn. 
Is found during summer in suitable localities over the 
island. 
Erom the south to the north of Ireland the ring-ouzel is a sum- 
mer inhabitant of certain haunts, which wholly differ in their 
character from those frequented by the other British thrushes, and 
render it little known except to the student of nature, or to the 
visitor of the wild and rocky mountain scenery.* To my ear its 
call-note is extremely pleasing, from association in the mind with 
the free spirit of nature, with localities which own not, — and 
never will own, — man's dominion. The ring-ouzel is truly a 
“ tenant of the wild." It first became familiar to me in the glens 
or ravines cleft in the range of mountains lying westward of Bel- 
fast, every one of which, that displayed wild romantic beauty in 
an eminent degree, boasted its pair or more of these birds, whose 
haunts were always where the cliffs or banks were loftiest, and 
where the cascade formed a picturesque accompaniment to the 
scene. Within the distance of five or six miles were as many of 
these localities thus resorted to, and where only, throughout the 
district, the birds were to be found, except at the periods of their 
migratory movements. When walking in the Crow Glen, one of 
these haunts, on a summer evening in 1829, with my pointer dog 
* When observing the two other fine species of Europeat] rock-thrush — Turdus 
saccatilis and T. cyaneus — about the Alps of Switzerland and Italy, the former of 
which was particularly conspicuous in the wild rocky defiles of the Rhigi, I could not 
but wish that, like the ring-ouzel, they also were visitants to Ireland. Two indivi- 
duals of the T. saxatilis have of late years been obtained in England. See Yarr. 
Brit. Birds. Supp. to 1st edit, and 2nd edit. 
