66 CLARKE : THE BIRDS OF YORKSHIRE. 



A curious fact in the nidification of this species is related 

 by Mr. Henry Smurthwaite, of Richmond (Zool., 1859, p. 656). 

 The nest was placed at the extreme end of an old sand martin's 

 hole, which extended two feet in a bank overhanging a stream. 

 The old bird was captured on the nest, which contained five 

 fresh eggs. Subsequently it was dug out and was found to re- 

 semble much in shape that of a blackbird ; but, as usual, was 

 composed of moss thickly lined with oak leaves, the dome, 

 however, being entirely wanting. Mr. Smurthwaite also describes 

 (Morris' Nat., 1855, p. 268-9) another nest which, strange to 

 say, was placed under a small railway bridge. Here five nests 

 were constructed by the same pair of birds in the spring of 

 1855, from which no less than 23 eggs had been taken, and at 

 the date of writing. May 15 th, the old bird was sitting on two 

 more eggs. 



A nest of this species at Richmond contained three eggs 

 as early as March 15th, and my earliest record for young 

 birds is the 6th of April, on Hambledon. 



Historically, perhaps, the oldest Yorkshire Water Ouzel is 

 the one described by John Ray, which was shot on the River 

 Rivelin, near Shefifield (Willoughby's Ornithology, 1678, p. 149). 



CINCLUS MELANOGASTER C. L. Brehm. 

 Black-bellied Dipper. 



A casual visitant from Northern Europe. 



It is not within our province to debate here the claims of 

 this bird to specific rank. This much however must be said for 

 it, that it is a well-marked climatic race — one of those birds to 

 which the writer would wish to see European ornithologists 

 apply the trinomial system of nomenclature so usefully employed 

 by American ornithologists for similar birds in North America, 

 and by whom this form would be styled Cindus aquaticus 

 melanogaster. 



Trans.Y.N.U., 1SS4 (pub. 18S6). Series B 



