1885-86.] Edinburgh Naturalists' Field Club. 309 



all the numerous smaller fry, such as Warblers, Titmice, and the 

 like, that swarm in the woods both at the Balerno and Glencorse 

 ends of the road, it is extremely doubtful if any walk of similar 

 duration in the vicinity of Edinburgh can show up to such advan- 

 tage in the matter of ornithological varieties. The two Ousels are 

 by no means confined to this part of the Pentlands, as both are fairly 

 numerous all over the range, and the water species may be observed 

 even at present so close to town as the Braid Burn, although un- 

 happily banished for ever from the banks of that pellucid stream, 

 the Pow. In autumn, prior to migration, the Ring-Ousels often 

 descend to the low grounds, and assist their congeners the Black- 

 bird and Mavis to clear off the rowan-berries from the trees ; and 

 as this happens in many seasons immediately before they depart, 

 they may almost be said to carry a taste of the wild north-land 

 along with them to the sunnier climes of the south. Leaving 

 them en route, therefore, let us turn for a few minutes to culti- 

 vate the acquaintance of our stay-at-home species, the Water- 

 Ousel. 



The Water-Ousel is seldom or never seen far away from the side 

 of a stream or loch, and unfrequently even in the vicinity of the 

 latter — the clear mountain-burn or rapid-running rivers, such as the 

 Tummel, Tweed, &c., being its favourite resorts. Every one who 

 has wandered by the sides of the last named, or fished any of 

 the upland rivulets, must be familiar with its snow-white w-aist- 

 coat and curious bobbing motion, — an action which strongly re- 

 minds one of the custom, now gradually becoming extinct but at 

 one time very prevalent, of little girls curtseying to strangers as 

 they passed through country villages — a species of servile polite- 

 ness which does not recommend itself to the present practical and 

 radical generation. When it alights, usually upon a stone or rock 

 that rises out of the stream, it flirts its tail and dips up and down 

 in rather comical style, very often accompanying this motion with 

 a restless turning about, so that at one moment its head faces you, 

 and at another its tail is presented. This practice has acquired 

 for it the common English name of Dipper, — not by any means an 

 inappropriate term, as is so often the case with the local nomen- 

 clature of birds. As already mentioned, it rarely ever leaves the 

 course of the running water ; in fact, even if chased, it can hardly 

 be persuaded to venture to any distance from the same, and when 

 pressed hard, it merely takes a higher flight overliead than usual, 

 only to return to the bed of tlie burn at a point where it conceives 

 itself safe. It is amphibious in the sense that it spends a con- 

 siderable portion of its existence under the watery element, and 

 this faculty has given rise to a very great amount of controversy, 

 assertion, and counter-assertion, bordering sometimes upon the 

 vituperative, among naturalists, some of whom maintain that it 



