perennis), and here and there an early primrose. As he wanders further up the dale the woods give place to low thorn-bushes. After a while even these cease, and he soon comes to a cave out of which the clear waters of the river flow. It is here that the river has its origin. Here in the cave he finds a Dipper's (Cinclus aquaticus) nest already containing eggs. Further up the dale no murmuring stream accompanies our traveller. Even here it is lonely enough. All is still. Though perhaps, if he is lucky, he may hear the cheery song of the Dipper, or the monotonous warble of a solitary Wheatear. Only one loud sound greets his ear—the chatter of the busy Jackdaws as they fly to and from the cracks in the rocks, or talk business and gossip on the ledges. But what is that?
"A whistle strikes his startled ear!
A pipe of shrillest, wildest tone."[1]
It is the Ring-Ouzel high up on the rocks, his song echoing from crag to crag.
Having given this brief picture of the haunts of the bird, we must now consider his habits more or less in detail.
Time of Arrival.—In the 'Birds of Northamptonshire' (vol. i. p. 99), Lord Lilford says:—"I have observed the bird in our immediate neighbourhood on its return migration about the end of April." Rev. H.A. Macpherson ('Fauna of Lakeland,' p. 89) writes:—"The last days of March witness the return of the Ring-Ouzels to their upland home." The earliest date on which I have heard or seen these birds in the Peak district was April 4th; but there are no Ring-Ouzels within three miles of my house, so that I may easily miss them on their first arrival. Mr. Peat recorded their advent on March 26th, 1894. So far as he remembers that is the earliest date he has known. The spring of 1894 was apparently an "early" one, for Mr. Peat found a Lapwing's egg on March 29th, a week before the usual date. But in that same year the Ring-Ouzels had not arrived in Lathkil Dale by March 30th. As a rule only a few birds appear at first, but are soon reinforced by a second batch.
General Habits, Food, Range, &c.—Mr. Peat informs me that when first the birds arrive the margins of the feathers are paler than they are a little later in the season, giving the bird a more
- ↑ Colquhoun's 'Moor and the Loch,' vol. ii. p. 119.
