148 BIRDS. 



exceedingly sweet, is heard in some parts of the country 

 throughout the year. I have repeatedly found this bird 

 abroad in the late evening, after other small birds are 

 gone to roost, though at such times it is silent. It feeds 

 in summer on worms and winged insects ; in hard weather 

 on seeds. The neat moss nest, a favourite with the cuckoo, 

 is ready by the middle of March, if not sooner. It is 

 lined with hair or feathers. Eggs, 5, ^ inch ; spotless 

 blue. Several broods are reared. 



Alpine Accentor. A rare allied straggler from the 

 South, distinguished by the white bars on the wings. It 

 has not been obtained more than about a dozen times. 



4. THE DIPPER OR WATER-OUSEL. 



The attractive little Dipper, which follows every bend of 

 the mountain-stream and carols forth its wild song beneath 

 the very waterfall, is a familiar sight on the river-bank, 

 less timid too and easier of observation than the more 

 showy kingfisher, whose name it borrows in the north. 

 It has been associated with the poaching of trout-eggs, but, 

 Alleged apart from the fact that its feeding-grounds 

 damage are often far from the " redds," where the ova 

 to ova. jj e ^d j n their shingle hummocks, the bird 

 feeds very largely on caddis and other water-insects. Let 

 us therefore spare the dipper and confine our attention to 

 that wholesale culprit, the swan. The dipper is not easily 

 mistaken for any other bird, for no other, save perhaps the 

 wagtail, is seen standing on the slippery stepping-stones, 

 flirting its tail and nodding its wren-like head. Its white 

 breast, too, is conspicuous at some distance, as are also the 

 short round wings. The dipper's plunge is ail but noise- 

 less ; and it walks, so we are told, over the bottom with 

 or against the current, and, like the water-vole, chasing 

 the larvae and water-beetles. I give these particulars from 

 other accounts, for, though I have watched the bird through 

 glasses by the hour, I was never yet so fortunate as to 



