88 TJIE MYRTLE 1!EK. 



search might be made amongst his brother's tackle and papers, but at 

 present, I believe nothing has been found, and therefore we can only reason 

 on what we have before us. My first impression, when I heard of the mat- 

 ter was, that it might be a " Lesser Grasshopper Lark," which we know fre- 

 quents such localities, except that it is generally where the ground is dry ; 

 but the square tail is against it, and the Captain, on being shewn the figure 

 of one, denied any resemblance to his bird. This is all I have been able to 

 elicit or conjecture; and as I have already run this article to an unusual 

 length, I must let it rest here for the present. Before I close this, however, 

 I may just observe, tliat the fact of a nondescript having hitherto escaped the 

 attention of Naturalists, has occurred on so many occasions, when tlie sub- 

 ject was almost before their eyes, that I do not think such a Consideration 

 should have too much weight. 



Lincoln Inn Fields, March \st, 1855. 



THE WATER OUZEL. (GINGLUS AQUATIGU8.) 



BY A. S. MOFFAT, ESQ. 



The Water Ouzel is a very common resident on the pebbly upland streams 

 of the highlands of Northumberland, where it seems to be a permanent 

 denizen ; as in any month of the year it is impossible to walk half a mile 

 along the gravelly shores of these hill-born streams, especially near the 

 Cheviot range, without encountering at least half a score of these little 

 spruce, white-throated warblers, now perched upon the top of some projecting 

 stone, jerking out a lively little ditty, — anon plunging head foremost into the 

 shallow but rapid stream to cater for its crustaceous meal, — then taking 

 wing, and after a flight of a hundred yards or so, dropping suddenly upon 

 some favourite shallow, again to repeat the same routine. 



It seems almost miraculous, how these tiny creatures manage to stem the 

 power of the stream as they do while so occupied; I have seen them im- 

 mersed quite over head in a rapid, where it would seem utterly impossible 

 for any bird, their size and strength, to keep its place for a moment against 

 such a current ; and it would appear to me very evident, that they can only 

 accomplish this mechanical feat, by grasping hold of the gravel and stones 

 at the bottom of the water with their feet. Although I cannot assert this 

 to be a positive fact, yet I consider it to be so probable, that in no other 

 manner can this strange faculty be so reasonably accounted for. 



In regard to the nesting places of this bird. I may mention that one day 

 last season, somewhere about the middle of June, while on a fi.shing excur- 

 sion, I was about to cross a Mountain-burn, called the Langiey-ford-burn, 

 about a mile from the foot of Cheviot, over which is thrown a foot-bridge, 



