THE WATER OUZEL. 43 



is a very singular structure, often as large as a 

 man's liat, more or less semicircular in form, witli 

 a firm sloping roof, made of moss, or water- 

 plants, beneath wliicli, as if under eaves, and com- 

 pletely hidden, is an aperture just large enough to 

 admit the passage of the bird. The commodious 

 and domed chamber within is lined with withered 

 oak-leaves ; and five beautiful eggs, of clear 

 snowy white, are deposited there. 



The Avater ouzel's nest is built early in the 

 year, and the first family are ready for flight by 

 the beginning of May. The nest is so well 

 hidden, in some cases, that it could never be dis- 

 covered, did not the cliirping of the nestlings 

 l)ctray its site, or the flight of the parent birds, as 

 they i)ass to and from their younglings with food, 

 mark the haunt. Often it is placed in some cre- 

 vice of the rock, or bank, which overhangs the 

 water, and occasionally it is concealed among the 

 stones at the side. A writer in the " ^lagazine of 

 Natural History " remarks : — " Once I found a 

 water ouzel's nest among some slender boughs, 

 overhanging a stream ; and once beneath a water- 

 fall, at a point where the rock retreated a little in 

 the middle ; tlie water falling in a sheet just over 



