170 WOODLANDERS AND FIELD FOLK 



spray, which makes a miniature rainbow against the 

 sun. It is here that the young dippers first begin 

 life, and a fairy spot it is. They soon learn to love 

 the white foam and the torrent, and a few days after 

 they leave the nest may be seen wading among the 

 shallows, or occasionally disappearing into the deeps. 

 From these they emerge, the golden water trickling 

 from their backs, but seldom without some soft- 

 bodied thing from among the pebbles. 



The young of both dippers and kingfishers are 

 driven from the paternal haunts as soon as they are 

 able to fare for themselves. Never more thcin a pair 

 are found along the river reach, and soon they get 

 to have well-defined beats, which they seldom fly 

 beyond, except under stress of circumstance. Pair- 

 ing probably begins in autumn, as it is then, when all 

 other birds are silent, that the peculiarly sweet 

 wren-like song is heard invariably in the vicinity 

 of running water. The birds will not stay long 

 where the water is slow or "logged"; they must 

 have the white foam, the torrent, the pebbly reaches, 

 and the shallows. In fact, they could not obtain 

 their food under conditions other than these. The 

 mountain burns abound with various aquatic insects 

 and larvae, and in limestone districts in innumerable 

 fresh-water molluscs. As we have shown, not only is 

 the ouzel innocent of destroying the eggs and fry 

 of trout and salmon, but it is indirectly a friend to a 



