46 Transactions. 



frequents the Nitli between the Cauld and the head of the 

 Dock, and I have there frequently heard its low but rather 

 sweet song while seated on a stone in the river. It is 

 absent during the summer, apparently while rearing its 

 young, but in autumn and all through winter and spring 

 when the river is in its normal state it is seldom to be 

 missed. During this winter when the river has been in a 

 chronic state of flood I have rarely seen them. I believe 

 this is caused by their inability to reach their food in the 

 deep water. There are two points in regard to this bii'd that 

 have often been disputed, viz., the nature of its food, and its 

 ability to seek it under water. It has been blamed for de- 

 stroying salmon spawn, and so, among the fish and game 

 preserving community, has been classed as " Vermin." In 

 regard to the first point I am inclined to believe that 

 it is not a systematic eater of salmon spawn, and for this 

 reason, that the spawn is usually deposited where there is at 

 least enough of water to more than cover the fish, while I 

 have never yet, and I have often carefully watched the birds, 

 seen them seeking their food in water deeper than would 

 cover their own backs. Their favourite feeding place seems 

 to me to be on the slope of the Cauld and in the tail-race of 

 the miU, in both of which places a weed grows which shelters 

 underneath it, in great numbers, an insect known as the 

 Fresh Water Shrimp. This insect, from what I have observ- 

 ed, in my opinion forms a great part of the food of the 

 Water Ouzel. On the second point — its ability to walk under 

 water — I am of opinion that in this, as in most other matters, 

 the middle course is the true one. It does, and yet it does 

 not, for while I have never seen it under water so deep as 

 entirely to cover it from view, I have very often seen it seek- 

 ing its food with its head under water, but that water not so 

 deep as completely to cover its body. Nothing is more com- 

 mon than to see the bird pass from one spot to another with 

 its quick jerking flight, alight in the shallow water of the 

 river side, and instantly commence its search for food, parti- 

 ally covered as I have described. 



