DIPPER. 133 



and the instant she quitted her nest plunged into the water, and disap- 

 peared for a considerable time ; at last she emerged at a great distance 

 down the stream. At another time we found a nest of this bird in a 

 steep projecting bank over a rivulet clothed with moss. The nest was 

 so well adapted to the surrounding materials, that nothing but the old 

 bird flying in with a fish in its bill would have led to a discovery. The 

 young were nearly full feathered, but incapable of flight, and the mo- 

 ment the nest was disturbed they fluttered out and dropped into the 

 water, and to our astonishment instantly vanished, but in a little time 

 made their appearance at some distance down the stream ; and it was 

 with difficulty two out of five were taken, as they dived on being 

 approached. 



*I have only once met with this nest, at Sorn Cleugh, Ayrshire, a 

 romantic spot, where thickly-wooded rocks of variegated sand-stone rise 

 for several hundred feet on each side of a small brook, approaching in 

 some points so near, that the sun-beams cannot reach the channel 

 below. By the side of a large block of sand-stone, which had fallen 

 into the stream from the overhanging cliff, in one of those darkened 

 corners, a pair of Dippers had built their nest. The block, in its 

 fall, had dragged down with it an old moss-grown hazel, whose roots 

 were plentifully clothed with lady-fern, (JPolypodium vulgare,) sweet 

 woodroof, (Asperula odorata^) and a profusion of green moss, (Hypna?) 

 These handy materials were employed by the ouzels for the frame- 

 work of their fabric, which was neatly arched over with a withered 

 fern-leaf, and over this was laid a warm coating of green moss, with a 

 few chips of the woodroof. The lining was of similar materials, but of 

 finer quality, and more smoothly arranged. It was so near the edge of 

 the stream also that it must have been overflowed had a flood occurred, 

 as is not unusual, from its vicinity to the Clomfort range of hills. It is 

 said the Dipper will sometimes nestle behind a waterfall when it 

 overshoots a steep rock, and thus leaves a vacuum ; and we are con- 

 vinced of the fact from having watched a pair of these birds flitting 

 stealthily out and in from such a locality at a small linn in the moors 

 above Wemyss Bay, Renfrewshire ; but the force of the falling stream 

 precluded our getting sufficiently near to discover the nest.* 1 



This bird is amongst the few that sing so early in the year as the 

 months of January and February. In a hard frost, on the 1 1th of the 

 latter month, when the thermometer in the morning had been at 26<>, 

 we heard this bird sing incessantly in a strong and elegant manner, and 

 with much variation in notes, many of which were peculiar to itself, 



1 Architecture of Birds, p. 325. 



