298 THE DIPPER 



2. Distribution. This is a sedentary bird, divided into numerous local forms, 

 which inhabit the mountainous districts of the British Isles, Continental Europe, 

 Corsica and Sardinia, Cyprus, North-west Africa, and Asia. Our British race 

 (Cinclus cinclus britannicus) is confined to the hilly districts of England, especially 

 the Pennine, Cumbrian, and Devonian systems, Wales and Scotland, including the 

 Hebrides and Orkneys. In the midland plain and the south-east of England 

 instances of its breeding are quite exceptional. The Blackbellied or Scandinavian 

 (C. cinclus cinclus), Pyrenean, North African, Central European, Alpine, Sardinian, 

 Palestine, Cyprian, and Caucasian birds have all been described as sub-specifically 

 distinct. [F. c. R. J.] 



3. Migration. Resident. In hard weather our birds forsake their hill 

 streams and are then found in lowland and coast districts, but there is no evidence 

 of any true migration. Examples of the Scandinavian race (C. cinclus cinclus), 

 however, sometimes occur as migrants on the eastern seaboard of Great Britain 

 (cf. Nelson, B. of Yorks., p. 104 ; and Stevenson, B. of Norfolk). [A. L. T.] 



4. Nest and Eggs. Nesting place : usually close to rapidly running water, 

 sometimes against a rock overhanging the stream, in a hollow in a wall or under a 

 bridge, even under a waterfall, and less frequently among tree roots, occasionally 

 in trees, on stumps or boulders projecting from the water, among ivy on the side 

 of a tree, not infrequently in a culvert or on the girders of railway bridges. It is 

 globular in shape, but varies somewhat according to the exigencies of the site, 

 and has a flattened opening at the side, sheltered from above. The true nest is 

 not unlike that of the blackbird ; it is placed within the mossy covering, and 

 built chiefly of dry grasses, and usually lined with dead leaves, preferably of the 

 beech, but also occasionally of the oak. Exceptionally nests have been recorded 

 in which moss was replaced by water weeds (Rodd, Birds of Cornwall, p. 30). 

 The lining of leaves is also sometimes absent, and Macpherson (Vert. Fauna of 

 Lakeland, p. 103), mentions a nest lined with feathers. (PI. xn.) Both sexes share 

 in the construction. Eggs, 4 to 6, pure white, without gloss. Average size of 

 100 eggs, 1-03 x -71 in. [26*13 x 18*1 mm.]. The breeding season is rather variable, 

 old birds occasionally breeding in February and early March, but the most 

 usual .time :is late in March and early in April. Both sexes incubate, and the 

 period lasts from 14-17 days. Two and occasionally three broods are reared 

 in ,a year,/sometimes in succession from the same nest. [F. c. B. J.] 



5. Food. Insects, chiefly aquatic, spiders, small crustaceans such as water- 

 fleas, soft-shelled molluscs, the hard undigested portions being regurgitated 



