Obs. or ? dial. [app. a. Ger. amsel:—OHG. amisala, cogn. w. OE. ósle, now ouzel.] A name of the Blackbird and Ring Ouzel.
a. 1705. Ray, Synops. Meth. Avium (1713), 65. Merula torquata, The Ring-Ouzel or Amzel.
1802. Montagu, Ornith. Dict., s.v. Blackbird, Amsel, a ‘provincial’ name. [Not in any of the Glossaries of the Eng. Dial. Soc., and perhaps only a dealer’s adoption of the German name, erroneously considered dialectal. Amsla became ósle in OE. in prehistoric times.]
