COMMON DIPPER. 195 



summer, when the parent birds are accompanied by their 

 young. Its flight is rapid and even, not unlike that of the 

 Kingfisher ; and Mr. Gould, who has had opportunities of 

 observing this bird both in Wales and Scotland, informs 

 me that its song, though louder its habit of elevating and 

 jerking its tail, its general manners, and the form as well 

 as the materials of its domed nest, all closely resemble 

 those of the Wren. It breeds very early in the season, and 

 conceals its large nest with great art. If a cavity in a 

 moss-covered rock is chosen, the nest is formed of a mass 

 of closely -interwoven moss, seven or eight inches deep, 

 and ten or twelve inches in diameter, with a hollow cham- 

 ber in the centre lined with a few dry leaves, to which ac- 

 cess is gained by a small aperture through the moss on one 

 side. Sometimes the nest is placed under a projecting 

 stone, forming part of a cascade, and behind the sheet of 

 water that falls over it. The eggs are from four to six in 

 number, measuring one inch in length by nine lines in 

 breadth, pointed at the smaller end, and white. 



Mr. Macgillivray, who has examined the contents of the 

 stomach in these birds on various occasions, has found only 

 beetles and the animals of fresh-water shells belonging to 

 the genera Lymnea and Ancylus ; the larvae of various 

 Ephemera and Phryganea have also been mentioned, and 

 those of other aquatic insects. In some parts of Scotland 

 this little bird "is destroyed by every device, from an idea 

 that it feeds upon the salmon spawn ; but this is not estab- 

 lished." 



The beak is brownish black ; the irides hazel ; the 

 margin of the eyelids white ; the head and neck to the 

 commencement of the back umber brown ; back, wings, 

 and wing coverts, rump and tail-feathers, sides, flanks, and 

 under tail-coverts, brownish black ; the margins of the 

 wing-coverts, and the tips of the feathers of the body, of 



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