56 BIRDS OF SOMERSETSHIRE. 



as the 20th of March; the year hefore I found a 

 nest with eggs very hard set, upon the 6th of 

 April. 



The nest is a large domed structure, made of 

 moss and lined with dry leaves, a small hole only 

 being left for the entrance of the bird. 



The poor Water Ouzel has been so much and 

 so unjustly persecuted by gamekeepers and others 

 interested in the preservation of fish, under the mis- 

 taken notion that it feeds upon the spawn of salmon 

 and trout, that I cannot help noticing at some 

 length the very successful defence that has been 

 made to this charge. Mr. Saxby says on this sub- 

 ject, in the * Zoologist' for 1863 (p. 8631), that when 

 in North Wales he had an almost unlimited supply 

 of specimens brought him by the keepers in the 

 neighbourhood, and that in not one instance could 

 even a trace of salmon ova be found in the stomach, 

 although the spawning season was the time in which 

 the slaughter of the Water Ouzel was most indus- 

 triously carried on. In one instance only, he con- 

 tinues, could ova of any kind of fish be found, and 

 that certainly was not of salmon or trout. In the 

 * Zoologist' for 1866 (Second Series, p. 21), Mr. 

 Alston says, " A full investigation of the charges so 

 often brought against the Water Ouzel, of feeding 

 on the spawn of salmon and trout, will be found in 

 Mr. Frank Buckland's book on fish-hatching, where 

 he shows that, so far from eating, it in fact protects 



