COMMON DIPPER. 259 



season the same nest or constructs a new one close to that of the pre- 

 vious year. The Dipper^s nesting- season commences early in the year; 

 and possibly two, if not three, broods are reared. By the first week in 

 April, should the weather be at all favourable, the birds are engaged in 

 nest-building. The site for the nest is usually amongst the rocks, never 

 in a tree or bush, although occasionally amongst their gnarled and moss- 

 grown roots. A favourite place is amongst the tree-roots which prevent 

 an overhanging bank falling into the water below— as is also a mossy 

 bank, or a hole in the stonework near a water-wheel, or under a bridge. 

 The nest is not unfrequently found within a few inches of the water, and 

 occasionally in the rocks over which the water rushes in mad career, 

 passing directly before the nest, and keeping it in an incessant state of 

 moisture by the spray continually beating against it. Although placed in 

 a most conspicuous position, it is so artfully concealed that its discovery 

 is often a difficult task. The site chosen, the materials have not far to be 

 sought. The moss which grows in luxuriant profusion all around is 

 selected ; and the outside of the nest at least is composed entirely of this 

 soft and beautiful material. In form it is somewhat like the Wren's, 

 domed ; but the hole which admits the parent birds is very low down the 

 side, and can seldom be seen unless from below, the entrance overhanging 

 a little. Inside this mossy dome a nest of the ordinary open style is 

 constructed, apparently quite distinct from it, Avithout being in any way 

 woven into it. In a nest which I carefully pulled to pieces, the inside 

 nest was composed of dry grass, the roots of heather, and slender birch- 

 twigs, and lined with a profusion of leaves, layer after layer of birch- and 

 beech-leaves, and, as a final lining, a mass of oak-leaves, laid one on 

 another, like leaves in a book. The outside dome was so closely woven 

 together of moss, with here and there a little dry grass, as not to be torn 

 to pieces without considerable force ; and the inside nest was so tightly 

 compacted, that, when the materials were pulled to pieces you could 

 hardly believe that they could have been made to take up so little room. 

 Outside it appeared nothing but a large oval ball of moss, about 11 inches 

 long, 8 inches wide, and about as high. Keen and piercing must be the 

 ■eyes of him who can, at a casual glance, discern the home of the Dipper 

 when placed amongst the moss-grown rocks ; for it is just like a piece of 

 the bank on each side of it, or, if placed on the bare rock-ledges, it only 

 looks like a patch of moss. The eggs of the Dipper are four or five in 

 number, and can never be confounded with the eggs of the Thrushes, 

 except in size and form. They are pure white and spotless, somewhat less 

 than a Song-Thrush's egg. The shell, however, does not possess that beau- 

 tiful gloss so characteristic of the eggs of the Kingfisher and the Wood- 

 pecker, and is somewhat rough in texture. They vary in length from I'l 

 to 0!)5 inch, and in breadth from 0'77 to ()'7 inch. 



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