46 THE BIRDS OF OXFORDSHIRE. 



a^ 



THE DIPPER. 



Cindiis aqtiaticus. 



The Dipper is only an occasional visitor of casual oc- 

 currence, our county wanting- the rvishing" boulder-strewn 

 streams with rocky banks, which afford it a congenial home 

 in the north and west of England. A Dipper was observed 

 on the banks of the Cherwell near Weston-on-the-Green on 

 the 6th May, 1 850, by Mr. Willughby Beauchamp {^Zoologist, 

 pp. 2982-3). Mr. T. Beesley has a note of one which flew 

 against the telegraph wires near Claydon on the 30th March, 

 1874, and his annotated copy of the Hisfonj of Baiihiiry list 

 contains the entry 'North Newington, 28th June, 1880.'' 

 Two were reported to the Rev. H. A. Macpherson as seen on 

 the Isis at Sandford in October, 1879, and a sing-le one was 

 seen by an Oriel friend of his, in May, 1881, on the Cherwell 

 above Marston Ferry. A Dipper shot in the northern ex- 

 tremity of the county on the 20th February, 1886, is in Mr. 

 F. C. Aplin's collection, and I have seen another which was 

 procured in the winter, about that year, at Heythrop. 



Instances of the Dipper nesting- away from its usual haunts 

 are extremely rare, but one such occurred at Claydon in May, 

 1876. The nest, which is of the usual domed pattern, resem- 

 bling in shape that of a Wren, with thick walls of moss, was 

 placed close to the water^s edge in the stump of one of the 

 stunted thorn bushes which grow commonly along our 

 streams. The hen bird was captured on the nest and the 

 male was shot ; these, with the nest and four eg-gs, are pre- 

 served at an inn in Banbury. 



Since this account was written, Mr. H. J. Bartholomew has 

 recorded in the Yield (1888, vol. ii. p. 509) his observation of 

 a pair of Dippers at a larg-e pond near Woodstock, on the i8th 

 September, 1888. 



