a series of letters containing notes on the Natural History of
Birds and Fishes in Devonshire. From this gentleman I
learn that flocks of Ring Ouzels appear in October, for about
a fortnight, near Berry-head, the Bolt-headland, and the
Start Point, and are then seen no more that year. Farther
to the eastward, at the Island of Portland, where these birds
assemble, they are called Michaelmas Blackbirds; and the
Isle of Purbeek is another starting-place. White of Selborne
saw them frequently when on their route in Hampshire and
Sussex. These flights probably go to France and Spain, and
from thence to North Africa, where they pass the winter.
A specimen is occasionally obtained near London. A female
bird, in my own collection, given me by my friend Mr.
Arthur Yardon, was caught in a trap in his garden at South
Lambeth; and a young male bird of the year was shot out
of a small flock on Wimbledon Common in October last by
Mr. Larkham of Roehampton.
From our eastern coast these birds probably cross the
Channel to Germany. They are rare in Holland, but common
in France. They breed in the mountains of Switzerland,
and are seen on the higher mountains of Arragon.
They are sometimes abundant in winter at Genoa and in Italy ;
but a great portion pass over to Africa, Egypt, and Syria.
The adult male has the point of the beak almost black, with
more or less of yellow at the base; the irides dark brown ; the
head, neck, back, upper tail-coverts, wings, and tail-feathers,
nearly uniform brownish black; the feathers of the body edged
with blackish grey; the external margins of all the wing-
feathers grey, but this lighter colour is broadest on the edges
of the tertials : the chin, throat, breast, belly, and under tail-
coverts are of the same colour as the upper surface of the
body, but across the chest there is a broad crescentic stripe
of pure white : the legs, toes, and claws, brownish black.
The length of an adult bird is about eleven inches. The
wing, from the carpal joint to the end of the longest primary,
five inches and a half: the first feather of the wing
very short; the second equal in length to the fifth ; the
third and fourth feathers also equal, and the longest in the
wing.
The female is rather lighter in colour than the adult male,
and the grey margins of the feathers are broader; the band
across the chest is narrower; the white colour is less pure,
and clouded with reddish brown and grey.
Young males resemble the adult female; but in young
females the pectoral gorget is scarcely perceptible.
Specimens without the white crescent have been called
Rock-thrushes. White, and some otherwise marked varieties,
are said to have occurred.
The vignette represents the form of the breast-bone of the
Blackbird, genus Turdus.
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