14 Among the Birds in Northern Shires. 



every valley in the Peak can boast a streamlet of 

 some kind. Some of course are more imposing than 

 others, drain larger areas of upland, and contain a 

 much greater volume of water. Some plough their 

 way across the open moorland, their bed in summer 

 being dry or nearly so; whilst others purl down 

 wooded valleys and along well -timbered bottoms, 

 between the ridges of millstone grit that are such a 

 prominent feature in this particular kind of country. 

 In their higher and wilder reaches such rivers as the 

 Dove, the Wye, and the Derwent — all beloved by 

 the angler for trout and grayling — may be taken 

 as very excellent examples of upland streams. The 

 ^ Rivelin, with its charming branches of Blackbrook 

 and Wyming brook, and itself a tributary of the now 

 polluted and ill-used Don, upon which grimy Sheffield 

 is partly situated, were all favourite streams of ours 

 rich in ornithological associations. So, too, was 

 the Sheaf, with once picturesque Meersbrook, espe- 

 cially in its upper waters between the villages of 

 Dore and Hathersage. 



Were we asked to name the most characteristic 

 bird of these upland streams we should unhesitatingly 

 answer, the Dipper. Not that the bird can be re- 

 garded as plentiful anywhere; and we know not a 

 few streams where this engaging species has dwindled 

 seriously in numbers during the past twenty years, 

 due partly to the senseless persecution of keepers 



