430 Contributions to the 



inaccessible. Here the nest was very large, formed of moss, and 

 of the regular domed structure, upon which the spray from the cas- 

 cade seldom ceased to beat, the water flowing over the rock being 

 only about two feet distant. This, however, I fear, caused the de- 

 sertion of the nest, as it was abandoned before the production of a 

 brood ; it was not completed until the 20th of April. On the 27th 

 of the same month in a subsequent year, a nest containing young, 

 and lined with the dried stalks of grass, and a few leaves, was ob- 

 served at the side of a rock bordering a stream, and elevated a foot 

 only above its surface. A fifth was placed in the hole of a wall be- 

 side an artificial fall* of the river Lagan. Throughout the breeding 

 season of 1832, a pair of these birds frequented a shade erected over 

 a large mill-wheel of nearly forty feet diameter, at Wolf hill, where 

 it was presumed they had a nest, though in such a place it was im- 

 possible to discover it. Their appearance emerging from this gloomy 

 and dark abode often caused surprise, especially when they sallied 

 forth between the arms of the gigantic wheel when in motion, a 

 state in which it was almost constantly. 



The stomachs of two individuals which I examined in the month 

 of December contained only the remains of the larvae of aquatic 

 coleoptera, and one in January exhibited but the fragments of in- 

 sects. The stomach of one examined in October was, excepting two 

 full-sized dorsal spines of a three-spined stickleback, (Gasterosteus,) 

 filled with the remains of Crustacea. A person who has had ample 

 opportunities of observing the species, states, that from shallow 

 water he has often seen it bring the larvae of phryganece, and 

 break their cases on a stone to get at the contained animal. I have 

 repeatedly seen this bird dive into a pond of clear spring- water ten 

 feet in depth. 



As several authors to whose works I have just referred differ in 

 their descriptions of the colour of the water-ouzel's legs, it may be 

 remarked, that two mature specimens particularly inspected by me 

 had the entire front (and it only) of the tarsi and upper side of 

 the toes of a whitish colour, being in general appearance like the 

 clouded or opaque part of a quill : all the rest was blackish, t 



* To take a wider illustration than Ireland can afford of its partiality to fall- 

 ing waters, it maybe remarked, that on the Rhine between Cologne and Scbauff- 

 hausen only once did this bird attract my attention, and then it was at the great 

 fall near the latter city. On the sublime alpine torrents of Switzerland it is al- 

 ways attendant; and about the fall of Velino, near Terni, in Italy, said to sur- 

 pass all other European cataracts in the beauty of its surrounding scenery, either 

 three or four of these birds appeared to me at one view. 



t Mr Selby having remarked that the water-ouzel is " probably" met with in 

 Derbyshire, it may be added, that I never saw the species more plentiful any 



