THE MINER'S CRADLE. 6i 



For hours I have sat and watched the busy pair, 

 passing in and out through the fall, with as much 

 apparent ease as an equestrian performer jumps 

 through a hoop covered with tissue-paper. The 

 nest was ingeniously constructed, to prevent the 

 spray from wetting the interior, the moss being 

 so worked over the entrance as to form an ad- 

 mirable verandah. 



Mr. George Gibbs ('Natural History, Washing- 

 ton Territory,') speaks of two he noticed whilst 

 gold -washing on the Salmon river : ' As I sat at 

 my cradle on the bank, a pair of dippers, which I 

 suppose had their nest hard by, or perhaps, as it 

 was July or August, had already hatched their 

 brood, used to play in the water near me, some- 

 times alighting at the head of a rapid, allowing 

 themselves to be swept under, and then rising 

 below. They dive with great celerity, and at 

 times beat the water with their wings, throwing 

 the spray over themselves. Their whistle was 

 sweet and rather sad, but they seemed very 

 happy and busy fellows notwithstanding, and in 

 nowise afraid of the harsh rattle of the " miner's 

 cradle.'" 



