another rather curiously marked with grey, the tail-feathers being
striped across grey and black. This is a young bird recently out of the
nest, and I have no doubt would, after a moult or two, have come to its
proper plumage, probably after the first moult, as seems to me
frequently the case with varieties of this sort, though I have known a
Blackbird show a good deal af white year after year in the winter,
resuming its proper plumage in the summer; and Mr. Jago mentions a case
of a Blackbird which passed through his hands which was much marked
with grey. This bird was found dead, and the owner of the estate on
which it was found informed Mr. Jago that it had frequented his place
for four years, and that he had seen it with its mate during the summer;
so in this case the variation certainly seems to have been permanent.


27. RING OUZEL. _Turdus torquatus_, Linnaeus. French, "Merle à
plastron."--I do not think the Ring Ouzel is ever as common in the
Channel Islands as it is on migration in South Devon. A few, however,
make their appearance in each of the Islands every autumn, but they are
never very numerous, and do not remain very long, arriving generally
about the end of September and remaining till the end of November or
beginning of December, during which time a few may always be seen hung
up in the market. Many of the autumnal arrivals are young birds of the
year, with the white crescent on the breast nearly wanting or only very
faintly marked.

Mr. Gallienne, in his remarks appended to Professor Ansted's list, says
the Ring Ouzel stays with us throughout the year, but is more plentiful
in winter than in summer. But I have never myself seen one either dead
or alive in the spring or summer. It may, however, occasionally visit
the Island in the spring migration, but I know of no authentic instance