310 THE DIPPER 



in his power. The lady dipper, moreover, in this resembling her 

 human sisters, showed a disposition not to share her mate's taste 

 in furniture ; she often refused " the rougher grasses and longer 

 twigs"; she was, as viewed from the masculine standpoint of Mr. 

 Torr, " fastidious and difficult to please." This was the opinion of 

 her husband, and it made him very angry. There were quarrels and 

 sometimes blows, the wife giving as good as she got ; " they attacked 

 each other, first standing plumage ruffled and heads lowered, and 

 then hurling themselves one against the other, just like a pair of 

 bantam cocks." The disputes were soon made up, and finally, at the 

 end of ten days, the nest, a shaggy ball of moss, and grass, and 

 leaves, was completed. The inside was neatly rounded and lined 

 with finer materials, among which were " one or two hairs and a single 

 large brown feather, probably belonging to a pheasant." The hen's 

 method of rounding the interior was to sit in the nest, her wings 

 slightly extended, and rotate slowly so as to bring pressure to bear on 

 each side in turn. 



The stages followed in the building of a nest when this is placed 

 against a wall or rock are peculiar. The birds commence building 

 from the bottom, and make, on the stone surface, a rough circular ring 

 of moss, which easily catches the eye in the season. They lay moss 

 alternately on one side and the other, and by the time the ring of 

 moss is completed the base of the nest protrudes four or five inches, 

 and the top about one inch from the surface, the thickness of the 

 walls also tapering off* from bottom to top. When the ring is com- 

 pleted, the dippers add material to the top until the whole of the 

 nest is arched over. 1 



This solid structure often has its broad base resting on a narrow, 

 sometimes scarcely perceptible ledge. " Resting " is, in fact, not the 

 word that describes its position, for the ledge is quite insufficient by 

 itself to act as a support. The nest keeps its place only because it is 



1 This description is based on a note in the Zoologist, 1867, p. 755, verified by Mr. F. C. R. 

 Jourdaiu (in litt.). 



