THK WATKR OU/.KL. 151 



being milked by the hedgehog and tin- nightjar. 

 I have hud many opportunities of observing this 

 bird narrowly, more frequently in Ireland and 

 Wales than even in Scotland, and I may add 

 though not without a slight pang of remorse 

 that in the stomachs of the many specimens I 

 have shot and dissected, even when in the com- 

 mission of the supposed act of larceny, I never 

 could detect any portion of the spawn of either 

 trout or salmon. Let us for a moment watch the 

 maiueuvres of a dipper. The scene shall be one 

 of his favourite haunts, the rocky bunks of M 

 mountain burn, or the gravelly shallows of a 

 larger stream. Perhaps you arc quietly seated 

 among the heather above, resting during the heat 

 of an autumnal noon, and admiring the various 

 colours of the mosses, lichens, and lycopodia that 

 clothe the margin. You are struck by the 

 loneliness of the scene. Nothing living ap- 

 pears to animate it. Suddenly a water ouxel 

 darts by. in swift, even flight, close to the surface, 

 and alights on u flat stone in the middle of the 

 burn a little lower down. You are no less struck 

 by his beauty his snow-white breast contrasting 

 with his otherwise dark plumage than with his 

 attitudes and performances : nodding his head 

 and jerking his short tail after the manner of a 



