198 WILD SPORTS OF THE HIGHLANDS.  [cuar. xxv 
“CHAPTER XXV. 
The Water-Ouzel: Nest; Singular Habits; Food; Song of—Kingfisher: 
Rare Visits of; Manner of Fishing—Terns: Quickness in Fishing; 
Nests of. 
For several years a pair of those singular little birds the water- 
ouzel have built their nest and reared their young‘on a buttress of a 
bridge, across what is called the Black burn, near Dalvey. This 
year I am sorry to see, that owing to some repairs in the bridge, 
the birds have not returned to their former abode. The nest, when 
looked at from above, had exactly the appearance of a confused 
heap of rubbish, drifted by some flood to the place where it was 
built, and attached to the bridge just where the buttress joins tha 
perpendicular part of the masonry. The old birds evidently took 
some trouble to deceive the eye of those who passed along the 
bridge, by giving the nest the look of a chance collection of 
material. I do not know, among our common birds, so amusing 
and interesting a little fellow as the water-ouzel, whether seen 
during the time of incubation,®° “during the winter months, when 
he generally betakes himself to some burn near the sea, less 
likely to be frozen over than those more inland. In the burn 
near this place there are certain stones, each of which is always 
occupied by one particular water-ouzel: there he sits all day, 
with his snow-white breast turned towards you, jerking his 
apology for a tail, and occasionally darting off for a hundred 
yards or so, with a quick, rapid, but straight-forward flight; then 
down he plumps into the water, remains under for perhaps a 
minute or two; and then flies back to his usual station. At other 
times the water-ouzel walks deliberately off lis stone down into 
the water, and, despite of Mr. Waterton’s strong opinion of the 
impossibility of the feat, he walks and runs about on the gravel 
at the bottom of the water, scratching with? his feet among the 
small stones, and picking away at [il ihe small insects and ani 
