38 OUR NATBT SONGSTERS. 



another heroine, retired to another eminence to 

 be 'spectatress of the fray.' Had tliey been a 

 pair of birds protecting their young, or assuming 

 similar artifice to the lapwing in withdrawing 

 attention from their nest, — in which the ring ouzel 

 is said to be an adept, — the circumstance would 

 perhaps be unworthy of notice; but they were 

 both male birds in adult plumage. The chase 

 of the dog was continued a considerable way 

 down the glen, and for fully fifteen or twenty 

 minutes." 



But the deep secluded glen, where the stream 

 rushes rapidly through the water-flowers and 

 grasses, or dashes over the stones or against the 

 rocks, in its course watering the green mosses 

 which cover them into a richer greenness ; the 

 quiet nook of earth, where the smoke rarely rises 

 against the blue sky, is a home for another species 

 of ouzel, one which is more frequent too, the 

 Water Ouzel, or Dipper* {Cinclus aquati'cus). Even 

 in tlie dreary season, when the trees are bare of 



* The Dipper is about seven inches in length. The head and 

 neck ai'e umber-brown; the rest of the upper parts and lower 

 belly nearly black; chin and throat white, merging into chest- 

 nut-brown on the breast ; the beak and feet dark brown. 



