. Birds of Britain . never. We have, however, no evil intentions, and havingsatisfied our curiosity we continue our walk. Suddenly abird rises from behind a stone at our feet, flies a few yards,and disappears round another boulder, this action is repeatedseveral times, till finally, becoming really alarmed, he fliesrapidly away over the spur of the hill. His plumage isuniformly dark, just a little lighter on the breast, and werecognise (if we did not already know it) a young birdstrongly on the wing; a few yards farther on we see a henbird, possibly his mother; she leaves her nest with fouregg
. Birds of Britain . never. We have, however, no evil intentions, and havingsatisfied our curiosity we continue our walk. Suddenly abird rises from behind a stone at our feet, flies a few yards,and disappears round another boulder, this action is repeatedseveral times, till finally, becoming really alarmed, he fliesrapidly away over the spur of the hill. His plumage isuniformly dark, just a little lighter on the breast, and werecognise (if we did not already know it) a young birdstrongly on the wing; a few yards farther on we see a henbird, possibly his mother; she leaves her nest with foureggs, which much resemble those of a Blackbird. The nestwas placed on the ground, under the shelter of a all the moorlands and hills of the British Isles thisEing Ouzel may be found during the summer, nestingeither as already described, or in holes of old walls, barns,or in fact wherever a spot can be found well concealed and 20 RING OUZEL Tunius torquatusAdult male (left). Adult female (above). Young (right). The Ring Ouzel sheltered from the wind. Towards the end of Septemberhe leaves his summer home and is then generally dis-tributed throughout the country, although often overlookedowing to his resemblance to a Blackbird when seen from ashort distance. Watch him, however, till he settles, forwhen alarmed he invariably perches on the top of thehedge before dropping down the other side, while theBlackbird, with his characteristic motion of the tail, entersthe hedge at once low down on the near side. The EingOuzel is not at home in the cultivated lowlands, and bythe end of October they have all left the country. In Cornwall and Devon they reappear again at the endof February, and working their way northwards throughWales, commence to nest early in April, as soon as springhas made itself felt on the hills. A few may spend thewinter in our most south-western counties, and it is prob-able that our home-bred birds travel entirely by a westernroute, and that the birds met wi
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Keywords: ., bo, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectbirdsgreatbritain
