246 WILD LIFE OF SCOTLAND 



as an interesting survival of a previous con- 

 dition. 



Or shall we adopt the simpler explanation, that 

 he is that familiar, not to say impudent bird, who, 

 rather than be in want of anything, comes to the 

 window-sill to beg, and so manages to maintain 

 himself in tolerable condition ? 



I find my second singer, the water-ousel, down by 

 the burn-side. It needs a practised ear to catch 

 the strains amid the rush and tumble of running 

 water, so exquisitely does it blend with the deeper 

 sounds of inanimate nature. Like the current, 

 the song is continuous, without natural beginning 

 or end. Following the sound, the eye has little 

 difficulty in picking out the white-breasted singer, 

 sitting on a boulder, or under, the bank; or the 

 black-backed songster against snow, or white froth. 



May he not be singing in imitation, or for 

 sympathy ? We have seen how his song har- 

 monises with, and even mimics, the continuity of 

 the current. Your cage-bird may be silent ; but 

 start the spinning-wheel, or sewing-machine, and 

 it will go hard but he will outnoise you. Cease, 

 and he will follow your example. 



In some such spirit of rivalry, may not the 

 bird, who is never out of hearing of the gurgle 



