COMMON DIPPER. 185 



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 builds early, 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 chamber in the centre lined 



with a few dry leaves, to which access 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 Ephe- 

 mera 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 established." 

 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 



