Spring on a Hill-stream 31 



a pent-house overhangs the lower cup, and is com- 

 pleted with a lining of dry leaves. Grey wagtails 

 return at the beginning of spring from their winter 

 quarters in the lowlands, and nest almost as early as 

 the dippers. They build in very much the same 

 places, but they make an open nest, and keep it 

 beyond reach of dripping water and dashing spray. 

 Grey wagtails are fondest of a hollow in some mantle 

 of ivy on a rock, or beneath an overhanging cornice 

 of roots at the top of a crumbling earth-bank by 

 the river-side. Their sharp twitter and the flash 

 of their yellow tails are constant features of the 

 stream-side through all the spring ; and on any 

 reach of the stream where the wagtails build, it is 

 seldom long before a thin note cuts the murmur of 

 the water, and the dipper whizzes past, like a sable 

 kingfisher. 



