BIRDS 105 



indomitable energy. He at least retains a spirit unsoured and 

 unchafed by the petty disappointments of life. Nothing seems 

 ever to come amiss to him. When the Redwing hops dolefully 

 across the snow-drift, and famishing Rooks fall tooth and nail 

 upon weaker fowl, the Dipper preserves his equanimity intact ; 

 nay, more, he manages to secure an easy competency. The only 

 time at which the Dipper finds it difficult to enjoy a good 

 1 square ' meal is when a succession of heavy * spates ' have 

 unduly swollen the lower waters of the larger rivers. If this 

 occurs, the habits of the Dipper are modified for the nonce. 

 Last year, for example, — the 24th day of January, — the Eden 

 was running very high, owing to a thaw setting in suddenly in 

 its head waters. Near Cargo, but on the opposite bank, I 

 watched a Dipper foraging for food after a method new to me. 

 It was hopping like a thrush over the grassy sods upon the 

 bank, now upright, now wading into the shallows of some soppy 

 ground, frequently inserting its bill into the loosened soil. 

 Although it hopped like a thrush, it was not of course feeding by 

 ear, like that bird, but was patiently boring into the ground in 

 every direction, evidently in the hope of being able to appro- 

 priate some unconsidered trifles. 



Order PASSERES. Fam. PARIDM. 



WHITE-HEADED LONG-TAILED TITMOUSE. 



Acredula caudata (L.). 



A review, which Dr. R. B. Sharpe contributed to Nature in 

 1886, took exception in a friendly spirit to a suggestion that 

 this Titmouse, so familiar to many of us as a continental species, 

 might occur some winter in Cumberland. A very few years 

 have sufficed to justify my supposed rashness. On the 26th of 

 November 1891, that accurate and cautious naturalist, Mr. Tom 

 Duckworth, came across a drove of about a dozen Long-tailed 

 Titmice in a lane between Orton and Thrustonfield. The 

 morning was bright and frosty ; the light was excellent. Three 

 of the Tits were conspicuously distinguished from the rest of 

 their companions by their pure white heads. They were not at 

 all wild, and permitted of a close inspection. Mr. Duckworth 



