COMMON DIPPER. 185 
summer, when the parent birds are accompanied by their 
young. Its flight is rapid and even, not unlike that of the 
Kingfisher ; and Mr. Gould, who has had opportunities of 
observing this bird both in Wales and Scotland, informs, 
me that its song, though louder—its habit of elevating and 
jerking its tail, its general manners, and the form as well 
as the materials of its domed nest, all closely resemble 
those of the Wren. It builds early, and conceals its large 
nest with great art. If a cavity in a moss-covered rock is 
chosen, the nest is formed of a mass of closely interwoven 
moss, seven or eight inches deep, and ten or twelve inches 
in diameter, with a hollow chamber in the centre lined 
with a few dry leaves, to which access is gained by a 
small aperture through the moss on one side. Sometimes 
the nest is placed under a projecting stone, forming part of 
a cascade, and behind the sheet of water that falls over it. 
The eggs are from four to six in number, measuring one 
inch in length by nine lines in breadth, pointed at the 
smaller end, and white. 
Mr. Macgillivray, who has examined the contents of the 
stomach in these birds on various occasions, has found only 
beetles and the animals of fresh-water shells belonging to 
the genera Lymnea and Ancylus ; the larve of various Ephe- 
mera and Phryganea have also been mentioned, and those 
of other aquatic insects. In some parts of Scotland this 
little bird “is destroyed by every device from an idea that 
it feeds upon the salmon spawn ; but this is not established.” 
The beak is brownish black; the irides hazel; the 
margin of the eyelids white; the head and neck to the 
commencement of the back umber brown; back, wings, 
and wing-coverts, rump and tail-feathers, sides, flanks, and 
under tail-coverts, brownish black ; the margins of the wing- 
coverts, and the tips of the feathers of the body, of 
