EUROPEAN DIPPER. 491 



CiNCLUS EUROP^US. 



I have been favoured by Mr Weir with the following no- 

 tice. " Friday Evening, 17th May 1839, half-past nine. I 

 am now sitting before a blazing fire, exceedingly cold, having 

 just returned from watching, for a long time this day, the 

 young Dippers in their nest under the waterfall on the river 

 Avon (see p. 62). It contained five young ones. During the 

 time that I watched the old birds, they usually fed their off- 

 spring between thirty and forty times each hour. Notwith- 

 standing the great quantity of insects which they received, 

 they never appeared to be satisfied, for when their parents 

 came in view, they stretched their heads out of the door of 

 their dwelling, and set up a strong chirping, which was heard 

 at a considerable distance. When I observed the old ones, 

 they procured all their food at the bottom of the water, chiefly 

 in the stream. They generally dived from a stone, and after 

 a submersion of some seconds reappeared with the larvae of 

 some aquatic insects. They sometimes however did this seven 

 or eight times before they succeeded. This perhaps mio-ht 

 have been owing to the state of the water, as it was then j^retty 

 muddy. They carried away all the droppings of their brood 

 in their bills, and let them fall into the water, at the distance 

 of about forty and fifty yards from their residence. When I 

 put my hand into the nest, to feel if they were ripe, one of 

 them flew out into the middle of a broad and deep pool, and 

 dived with the greatest rapidity. It must have swam to a 

 considerable distance, as I could not see it again, although I 

 watched the sides of the river with the greatest circumspec- 

 tion.'" 



Mr Hepburn informs me that he has in his neighbourhood 

 recently met with the Garden Warbler, Sylvia hortensis ; the 

 Sedge Reedling, Calamoherpe phragmitis ; and several speci- 

 mens of the Blackcap, Sylvia atricapilla. 



