THE WATER OUZEL, OR DIPPER. 



{CINCLUS AQUATICUS.) 



Year after year I had tried without success to rear from 

 the nest these very interesting and singular birds, and not- 

 withstanding repeated failures, I had not only persevered 

 in the endeavour to do so, but induced others to make the 

 attempt. In these efforts I had been aided by several friends, 

 and among others Mr. R. J. L. Price, of Merionethshire, a 

 Fellow of the Society. This gentleman kindly forwarded 

 the nests of young birds, and, from time to time, by trying 

 almost every kind of insect and other food, I succeeded for 

 a while to rear the birds, but just when my efforts appeared 

 likely to succeed, a change would take place and the birds 

 would die one after another. Sometimes they would get 

 too wet and die, apparently, of cramp ; others that had 

 been kept away from the water wasted and died of ex- 

 haustion. It was quite evident that I had not discovered 

 a food that suited them ; they had been tried with the 

 usual food for most insect-eating birds, such as scraped 

 beef and hard-boiled eggs, ant eggs, mealworms, spiders, 

 flies, beetles, aquatic snails, shrimps, salmon spawn, and 

 many other mixtures, but all failed, until my clerk and 

 assistant, Mr. Arthur Thomson, who had taken as much 

 interest in rearing these birds as myself, hit upon the idea 

 of scalding the mealworms, and tried it. It was soon 

 apparent that in this condition the mealworms could be 

 digested, while in a raw or living state they (especially 

 their hard skins) would pass through the birds in a hard 



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