INSESSORES. MERUL1DÆ.
D E N T I ROSTRES.
TH E RING OUZEL.*
Turdus torquatus,
Merula tor qua ta,
Turdus torquatus,
Merula tor quota,
Turdus torquatus,
Ring Ouzel, P enn. Brit. Zool. vol. i. p. 415.
,, ,, M ontagu, Ornith. D ie t.
,, ,, B ewick, Brit. Birds, vol. i. p. 127.
,, Thrush, F lem. Brit. An. p. 65.
,, Ouzel, Selby, Brit. Ornith. vol. i. p. 169.
,, ,, J enyns, Brit. Vert. p. 101.
,, ,, G ould, Birds of Europe, pt. ix.
Merle à plastron, Temm. Man. d’Ornitli. vol. i. p. 166.
* Ousel, or Ouzel, from Oisel, old French.—Nare’s Glossary.
The Blackbird is also sometimes called Ouzel and Ousel. Thus Shakspeare
says—
“ The Ousel cock, so black of hue,
With orange tawny bill.”
Mids. N. Dr. iii. 1.
T h e R in g O u z e l is a summer visitor to the British
Islands ; and although its migrations are decidedly opposite
as to season to those of the Fieldfare and Redwing, which
visit us in winter, all three pass the coldest weather in the
warmer parts of Europe, and the countries a little farther
to the south of it, and all three likewise pass the summer in
the more central or northern parts.
The Ring Ouzel arrives in this country from the south in
the month of April, and appears to prefer the extreme western
and northern portions of these islands, visiting the wilder
rocky and mountainous districts generally. They breed, it
is said, on Dartmoor every year; and Mr. Eyton has noticed
that they are by no means rare birds in Wales, particularly
on the Berwyn chain of mountains near Corwen.
According to Mr. Thompson,* they are distributed generally
over Ireland ; and the birds are seen every spring in Devonshire
and Cornwall, on their passage, probably, to these
breeding-grounds.
They are seen in Surrey, Kent, Essex, Suffolk, and Norfolk,
both in spring and autumn ; and from the circumstance
of a specimen having been shot early in the month of August
1836 near Saffron Walden, it was conjectured the bird
had been bred in that neighbourhood. In 1804, a pair
built in a garden at Lowestoff; but their nests are much
more frequent in the northern counties. Mr. Allis of \ ork
tells me that it breeds in the higher moorlands of Yorkshire :
and the eggs of this bird in my own collection were sent me
by Mr. Leyland of Halifax. They are known to breed also
in Derbyshire. Mr. Selby, in his Catalogue of Birds of the
county of Northumberland, says it is common in summer
throughout the Cheviot range, and the higher parts of Cumberland
and Durham. At the meeting of the Berwick Naturalists’
Club in September 1834, Mr. Armstrong men-
* Mag. of Zool. and Bot. vol. ii. p. 438.