174 
distinguished ornithologist objected to it, and that the jury 
ultimately returned their verdict thus:—‘‘Water Ouzel /wdly — 
acquitted of the charge of eating fish spawn.” 
I have gone rather deeply into this, as the poor Dipper still 
suffers for a crime of which he is innocent, and I should like to see 
justice done to him. 
With us the Dipper is one of our earliest breeders, and about 
the time when the Pilewort (Ranunculus Ficaria) first breaks into 
bloom, gemming the still withered hedge-side with its bright green 
heart-shaped leaves and yellow starlike flowers, you may make your 
first journey in quest of the Dipper’s home. The nest seems large 
for the size of the bird, is domed in construction, with an entrance 
from the side, and is. generally composed of moss, with a lining of 
dried oak leaves. I have known two instances in which this plan was 
deviated from ;—one where a tuft of dried grass had been seized 
upon to form the outer covering, and another in which some 
withered fronds of a fern had been applied to the same purpose. 
Some writers give the nest as being lined with feathers ; in some 
scores of nests I have examined, I have never found this the case. 
The Dipper displays great acuteness in the selection of its 
nesting site, seldom nesting on a clay or gravel bank, but generally 
choosing a rock, whose base is washed by the stream, or the roots 
of an overhanging tree. Generally the nest is not easy of access, 
unless the water is low, and here the Dipper is sometimes at fault, 
for building, early as it does, when the rivers are mostly bank full, 
what are then safe places, become less so in the drier summer 
months. Often before the young are fledged, the water falls so 
much that there is a dry pathway between rock and river. 
The height of the nest above the water varies considerably: I 
have seen it so near the stream as to be only two feet above low water 
mark ; and again, as high as fifteen or sixteen feet above the water, 
with a clear plunge into a pool perhaps as deep. It would have 
been an amusing sight to see the young Dippers emerge out of one 
of these high placed nests on their first essay into the outer world. - 
About the time when they are ready for flight, and you chance to 
