BIRDS 103 



bird. Bewcastle folk call it the Hemplin, a term applied in 

 West Cumberland to the Linnet, though the Hedge Sparrow is 

 dubbed the Hempie in many districts of southern Scotland. It 

 is an early breeder; it often happens in a late spring that the 

 first eggs are chilled in consequence of the leaves not having 

 expanded sufficiently to save the nest of this small bird from 

 the inundations of April showers. The earliest brood that came 

 under my notice this year [1891] hatched out on the 15th of 

 May. From the first they were partially invested with a cover- 

 ing of black down. By the 24th day of the same month they 

 had feathered nicely, and could chirrup strongly to their parents. 

 In 1888 I found a brood which did not leave the nest until the 

 8th of September. 



Order PASSERES. Fam. CINGL1DJE. 



DIPPER. 



Cinclus aquaticus, Bechst. 



Dr. Gough described the Water Ouzel as common on the 

 rocky parts of Kent, Mint, and Sprint. Mr. W. Duckworth 

 finds that his favourite bird nests as regularly beside the quiet 

 streams near Ulverston as on the gills and becks of the more 

 remote fell sides. No river perhaps offers greater attractions to 

 the Dipper than the Eden, the banks of which, from Wetheral 

 upwards, assume an irregular and often precipitous character, 

 affording many of those ledges, overhanging the deeper pools, 

 upon which the Dipper loves to frame its nest. Though a 

 shelf or wall of rock most frequently supports this structure, 

 a few pairs nest beneath bridges and in the roots of trees. 

 Singularly aberrant was the conduct of the pair of Dippers 

 which, for several seasons, nested in the branches of a tree at 

 Corby. Yet no sooner had the fact been reported than other 

 instances of the Dipper nesting in trees appeared in the public 

 press. A novel departure in the Water Ouzel's arrangements 

 is lining the nest with feathers. For thirty years Mr. Tom Duck- 

 worth had examined many nests every season without finding a 

 single trace of feathers. In 1890 he found, for the first time, 

 a nest partially lined with feathers. Verily, it is parlous to 

 dogmatise too nicely about the practices of wild birds ! 



