198 WILD SPORTS OF THE HIGHLANDS. [CHAP. xxr. 



CHAPTER XXV. 



The Water-Ouzel : Nest ; Singular Habits ; Food ; Song of Kingfisher : 

 Rare Visits of; Manner of Fishing Terns: Quickness in Fishing; 

 Nests of. 



FOR several years a pair of those singular little birds the water- 

 ouzel have built their nest and reared their young on a buttress of a 

 bridge, across what is called the Black burn, near Dalvey. This 

 year I am sorry to see, that owing to some repairs in the bridge, 

 the birds have not returned to their former abode. The nest, when 

 looked at from above, had exactly the appearance of a confused 

 heap of rubbish, drifted by some flood to the place where it was 

 built, and attached to the bridge just where (he buttress joins tha 

 perpendicular part of the masonry. The old birds evidently took 

 some trouble to deceive the eye of those who passed along the 

 bridge, by giving the nest the look of a chance collection of 

 material. I do not know, among our common birds, so amusing 

 and interesting a little fellow as the water-ouzel, whether seen 

 during the time of incubation, or during the winter months, when 

 he generally betakes himself to some burn near the sea, less 

 likely to be frozen over than those more inland. In the burn 

 near this place there are certain stones, each of which is always 

 occupied by one particular water-ouzel : there he sits all day, 

 with his snow-white breast turned towards you, jerking his 

 apology for a tail, and occasionally darting off for a hundred 

 yards or so, with a quick, rapid, but straight-forward flight ; then 

 down he plumps into the water, remains under for perhaps a 

 minute or two ; and then flies back to his usual station. At other 

 times the water-ouzel walks deliberately off his stone down into 

 the water, and, despite of Mr. Waterton's strong opinion of the 

 impossibility of the feat, he walks and runs about on the gravel 

 at the bottom of the water, scratching with his feet among the 

 small stones, and picking away at all the small insects and aiii- 



