Perching Birds. 
69 
otherwise the general plumage of the bird is black. The Ring-Ouzel is a summer 
visitor to Northern Europe, and nests in the mountainous parts of Great Britain and 
in Scandinavia. In habits it much resembles the Blackbird, but prefers the open 
moorland and the rocky districts. In Norway I have found it nesting at 3500 feet, 
and inhabiting the scattered birch-woods, visiting the adjacent grass-land to pick- 
up its food. It is always very shy. The nest is similar to that of a Blackbird, but is 
placed on the ground or close to the latter, though it is sometimes found in the hole 
of a bank or wall. The eggs are generally four in number and much resemble those 
of the Blackbird. 
THE 
BLACK-THROATED 
OUZEL. 
(Merula atrigularis.) 
This species ( see p. 67) is a much paler bird than the two 
preceeding, and is of a light olive-brown colour, with the face, 
throat and chest black ; the axillaries and under wing-coverts 
are rich chestnut, and the bill is blackish brown, not yellow. 
The female has the face and throat white, spotted with 
black on the cheeks, sides of throat and fore-neck ; the breast and the sides of 
the body are ashy-brown, with dusky brown streaks. The Black-throated Ouzel 
has only been obtained once in England, a young male having been shot 
near Lewes in December, 1868. It has occurred on several occasions on the 
continent of Europe. It breeds in Siberia, in the valley of the Yenesei, and 
also in central Asia, and is very common in winter throughout the Himalayas, 
in the higher portion of which chain it is also supposed to nest. The species 
is said by Seebohm to be very wary in its habits, but he found it to be a 
noisy and active bird, frequenting the neighbourhood of villages in the Yenesei 
valley. The nest is not yet described, but the eggs are said to be similar to 
those of the Blackbird. 
THE REDWING. 
( T Urdus iliacus.) 
This isone 
of the true 
Thrushes, in 
which the male and female are alike 
in plumage, and the species is easily 
recognised by its distinct white eye- 
brow, and by the vinous chestnut 
colour of the axillaries and under 
wing-coverts, a feature which is very 
much in evidence when the bird flies. 
By this red colour of the under sur- 
face of the wing the species is easily 
told from the Song-Thrush, which 
has the wing-coverts golden buff 
below, and so there should not be 
any difficulty in recognizing the two 
The Redwing. 
