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swollen river. Waiting until it had passed me, I had time to observe that his perch was a bit 

 of turf that had been frozen in the block, and that the little sailor seemed hardly conscious of 

 being wafted onwards. The song continued until the tiny iceberg reached a much swifter 

 current, running between two islets in the centre of the river, when the bird, apparently realizing 

 his change of locality through the walloping motion of the novel craft, sprang with a whirr from 

 his perch, and in another moment was pursuing his rapid flight straight up the stream." 



In almost all localities where the Dipper is found it is resident, breeding in the same place 

 where it has spent the winter. All the nests of the Dipper which I have had an opportunity of 

 examining were placed under the shelter of an overhanging crag or shelf of rock, in some 

 instances being behind a small waterfall, and always carefully concealed. The nest itself is a 

 large structure composed of moss, and lined with grass and leaves, the entrance-hole being on 

 the side. The eggs, usually four in number, are deposited in April or early in May ; they are 

 rather elongated in form, tapering towards the smaller end, and are pure white in colour, the 

 texture of the shell being extremely fine and glossy. In size, those in my collection, vary from 

 U by U to 1& by fa inch . 



Macgillivray writes that at Boghead the Dipper begins to build about the middle of April. 



" The nests are constructed with much ingenuity, and are large for the size of the birds. The 



exterior part of them is composed of moss very compactly felted together, having a hole in their 



side resembling that of the common Wren. In the interior part the under layer is lined with the 



stalks of strong grass, and the upper one, in all the nests that I have seen, with the leaves of 



the beech or the oak. To the place where these birds have once taken up their residence they 



are strongly attached. In the hole of an old wall at the back-lade of Livingston mill-dam, for a 



considerable time, I have observed one of their nests. Mr. Meikle, the miller, told me that a 



pair of them have built in it for thirty-one successive years, and that they generally had three 



broods in the season, and four birds in each of them. Although the nest was within a foot of 



the waterfall, which even sometimes passed over it, they nevertheless flew in and out with the 



greatest apparent ease. I am acquainted with a boy who told me that he had taken one 



repeatedly out of her nest, and, after having replaced her, she continued to sit upon her eggs. 



Being anxious to procure a good specimen of the female, I caught one whilst sitting upon her 



brood. As several of the feathers of her wings and tail were much worn, I pulled them out, 



and set her at liberty. In the course of a few hours, however, she returned, and, unmoved by 



this unusual treatment, fed her little ones as anxiously and carefully as ever, and, although 



deprived of her partner, brought them up to maturity. On the banks of the river Avon, about 



a mile and a half below the bridge of Linlithgow, I last summer discovered a nest in rather a 



curious situation. It was built in an angle between two fragments of rocks under a small cascade ; 



and although the water fell upon part of the dome, the compactness with which it was put 



together rendered it impenetrable." Mr. E. R. Alston also informs me that " in Lanarkshire, 



where the Dipper is one of our earliest breeders, I have noticed that the nesting-place is usually 



selected in the lower and more sheltered reaches of the streams, but as soon as the young are 



fully fledged the whole family migrate to the higher and smaller tributaries, where they spend 



the summer. If unmolested they return year after year to the same place. Mr. Hearle Rodd 



considers that this bird, like the Wren, often makes several futile attempts at nest-building 



