COMMON DIPPER. 177 



materials of its domed nest, all closely resemble those of 

 the Wren. It builds early, and conceals its large nest with 

 great art. If a cavity in a moss-covered rock is chosen, the 

 nest is formed of a mass of closely interwoven moss, seven or 

 eight inches deep, and ten or twelve inches in diameter, with 

 a hollow chamber in the centre lined with a few dry leaves, 

 to which access is gained by a small aperture through the 

 moss on one side. Sometimes the nest is placed under a pro- 

 jecting stone, forming part of a cascade, and behind the sheet 

 of water that falls over it. The eggs are from four to six in 

 number, measuring one inch in length by nine lines in 

 breadth, pointed at the smaller end, and white. 



Mr. Macgillivray, who has examined the contents of the 

 stomach in these birds on various occasions, has found only 

 beetles and the animals of fresh-water shells belonging to the 

 genera Lymnea and Ancylus : the larvee of various Ephemera 

 and Phryganea have also been mentioned, and those of other 

 aquatic insects. In some parts of Scotland this little bird 

 " is destroyed by every device, from an idea that it feeds 

 upon the salmon spawn ; but this is not established." 



The beak is brownish black ; the irides hazel ; the margin 

 of the eyelids white ; the head and neck to the commence- 

 ment of the back umber brown ; back, wings, and wing- 

 coverts, rump and tail-feathers, sides, flanks, and under tail- 

 coverts, brownish black ; the margins of the wing-coverts, and 

 the tips of the feathers of the body, of a lighter greyish black ; 

 chin, neck, and upper part of the breast, pure white ; lower 

 part of the breast chestnut brown ; legs, toes, and claws, 

 brown. Females resemble the males. 



The whole length of the specimen described measured 

 seven inches and one quarter. From the carpal joint to the 

 end of the wing, three inches and three-eighths ; the first 

 winej-feather less than half the lensrth of the second, which is 



