542 Queries and Answers, 



think that they are unjustly accused in this instance, and 

 believe that they were catching creepers when he supposed 

 they were eating spawn. If this were the case (and it is a 

 fact well worth ascertaining), they were rendering an essential 

 service to the fisheries, when he supposed they were injuring 

 them, because these creepers (the larvae of the May fly, bank 

 fl}^, and all the drakes) are exceedingly destructive to spawn- 

 ing beds : and, as the water ouzel feeds on them at all other 

 times, and as they are more abundant in the winter than at 

 any other season, I think this is the more probable supposi- 

 tion. Of course, if he has shot the bird, and speaks from 

 knowledge after dissecting it, there can be no doubt of the 

 fact ; but, if he merely supposes it so, because the water ouzel 

 feeds in the same streams where the salmon are spawning, it 

 is very probable that he is mistaken, for the reasons before 

 mentioned. — T", G. Clitheroe, Lancashire^ May 29. 1834. 



The Water Ouzel; its Song (VII. 183.), a7id Nest (II. 

 400.): in reply to the query in VII. 183. — I answer, un- 

 hesitatingly, that it has a very sweet song. I live in a 

 neighbourhood where water ouzels are common ; so common, 

 indeed, that it would be difficult to pursue any stony stream- 

 let a couple of miles, without observing several of them. 

 Their song is rapid and vigorous ; continued often two or three 

 minutes at a time ; and, to my ear, resembling a good deal, 

 in its execution, the song of the wren; from which it, how- 

 ever, differs materially in this respect, that it is not charac- 

 terised by a loud shrillness, but by a certain subdued and 

 warbly richness. The water ouzel never sings more sweetly 

 than on a bright frosty-aired morning in January or February. 



A word or two on its nest. This is generally affixed to 

 some rough moist rock or bank, rising perpendicularly from 

 a river's margin. In bulk, I should say, it was nearly the 

 size of a hat ; in shape, more or less semicircular, with a firm 

 compact sloping roof made of moss ; beneath which, as under 

 eaves, and completely concealed from the sight, is the en- 

 trance, a hole just large enough to allow the bird free ingress 

 and egress. The apartment within is domed and commo- 

 dious ; and invariably lined with withered oak leaves, in which 

 I find deposited commonly five white eggs, remarkable for 

 their brittleness, transparency, and purity. Once I found a 

 water ouzel's nest among some slender boughs overhanging a 

 stream ; and once beneath a waterfall, at a point where the 

 rock retreated a little in the middle ; the water falling in a 

 sheet just over the nest, and forming, as it were, a kind of 

 crystal veil to it. Indeed, the eaves of the nest (as I call 

 them) were always dripping tvet; whereas the oak lining 



