HABITS OF BIRDS. 245 



searches the bark, commencing at the bottom and ascending 

 to the twigs, then flies off, and alights near the base of another 

 tree. The activity of these tiny creatures is astonishing, for 

 you may watch them for hours without observing the least in- 

 termission in their labour, if labour it may be called. Let us 

 now cross the hill in the direction of Gilmerton. Some larks 

 spring up from among the grass, with a peculiar flittering and 

 undulating motion, and the pipits which you hear emitting their 

 sharp notes, fly as if hesitating which way to direct themselves. 



A full corn-yard is a very pleasant sight. These stacks are 

 neatly built, and doubtless a judicious plan it is to support 

 them on cast-iron props. Here is a small stream. Do you 

 see that white spot by the burn ? It moves. Is it foam ? 



No, the Dipper, or, as it is here called, the Water Crow ; a 

 pleasant, active, little bird, ever found by streams, but by no 

 means by burns or brooks only, being as often seen on our 

 largest rivers, as the Tay and the Tweed. It feeds upon aquatic 

 mollusca and insects, for w^hich, although not web-footed, it 

 dives. There, it shoots past with a rapid, bouncing, direct flight, 

 very like that of a humble bee. It follows the stream, and now 

 it perches on a stone. Stay here, and I shall procure it. I 

 know it well, and can circumvent it. 



Let me see it : — a very beautiful little fellow ; black, with 

 a white throat, and reddish-brown breast. What a number of 

 holes in the bank ! 



These are the burrows of the AVater Rat, Articola ampJiihiiis^ 

 which is most easily procured in the evening, or early. One 

 moves the water among the bur-reeds. No, it is a Water Hen. 

 Observe how lightly it swims, jerking up its tail, and shewing 

 the white spot beneath it. Here, take a shot, and be a field 

 naturalist in earnest. Well done ! you have it. Now, let us 

 go across the fields. * * * 



We have arrived at the Gilmerton limestone. The quarries, 

 you observe, have been excavated along a continuous line, and 

 there you see the bed has been followed to a great depth, pillars 

 being left to support it. Here among the fragments are re- 

 mains of encrinites, terebratulae, and other organic productions. 

 The same limestone, after passing under the valley of the Esk, 



