COMMON DIPPER. 259 
season the same nest or constructs a new one close to that of the pre- 
vious year. The Dipper’s nesting-season commences early in the year; 
and possibly two, if not three, broods are reared. By the first week in 
April, should the weather be at all favourable, the birds are engaged in 
nest-building. The site for the nest is usually amongst the rocks, never 
in a tree or bush, although occasionally amongst their gnarled and moss- 
grown roots. A favourite place is amongst the tree-roots which prevent 
an overhanging bank falling into the water below—as is also a mossy 
bank, or a hole in the stonework near a water-wheel, or under a bridge. 
The nest is not unfrequently found within a few inches of the water, and 
occasionally in the rocks over which the water rushes in mad career, 
passing directly before the nest, and keeping it in an incessant state of 
moisture by the spray continually beating against it. Although placed in 
a most conspicuous position, it is so artfully concealed that its discovery 
is often a difficult task. The site chosen, the materials have not far to be 
sought. The moss which grows in luxuriant profusion all around is 
selected; and the outside of the nest at least is composed entirely of this 
soft and beautiful material. In form it is somewhat like the Wren’s, 
domed ; but the hole which admits the parent birds is very low down the 
side, and can seldom be seen unless from below, the entrance overhanging 
a little. Inside this mossy dome a nest of the ordinary open style is 
constructed, apparently quite distinct from it, without being in any way 
woven into it. In a nest which I carefully pulled to pieces, the inside 
nest was composed of dry grass, the roots of heather, and slender birch- 
twigs, and lined with a profusion of leaves, layer after layer of birch- and 
beech-leaves, and, as a final lining, a mass of oak-leaves, laid one on 
another, like leaves ina book. The outside dome was so closely woven 
together of moss, with here and there a little dry grass, as not to be torn 
to pieces without considerable force; and the inside nest was so tightly 
compacted, that, when the materials were pulled to pieces you could 
hardly believe that they could have been made to take up so little room. 
Outside it appeared nothing but a large oval ball of moss, about 11 inches 
long, 8 inches wide, and about as high. Keen and piercing must be the 
eyes of him who can, at a casual glance, discern the home of the Dipper 
when placed amongst the moss-grown rocks ; for it is just like a piece of 
the bank on each side of it, or, if placed on the bare rock-ledges, it only 
looks like a patch of moss. The eggs of the Dipper are four or five in 
number, and can never be confounded with the eggs of the Thrushes, 
except in size and form. They are pure white and spotless, somewhat less 
than a Song-Thrush’s egg. The shell, however, does not possess that beau- 
tiful gloss so characteristic of the eggs of the Kingfisher and the Wood- 
pecker, and is somewhat rough in texture. They vary in length from 11 
to 0°95 inch, and in breadth from 0°77 to 0°7 inch. 
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