BIRDS OF DUMFRIESSHIRE 
probabiUty a migration to the south does take place m 
September and October, its numbers are certainly not 
seriously afEected by a general emigration. Dr. Hartert has 
lately separated the resident British Hedge-Sparrow from 
the continental form chiefly on account of a difference m 
the wing formula.* , 
The neat little nest with its pale blue eggs is not only 
frequently destroyed by school children, but often robbed 
by weasels, and many of my informants write me as to the 
bird's decrease in numbers. A nest with five eggs, built 
in the heart of a kail-stock at Gribton (Holywood), is a 
pecuUar site recorded in 1850.t Incubation I have found 
requires thirteen days. 
The small song of the Hedge-Sparrow is seldom heard 
before the latter half of February, but Miss Wallace records 
it as singing at Lochmaben on January 25th, 1906. 
THE BRITISH DIPPER. 
Cinclus cinclus hritannicus, Tschusi. 
Local names-WATER-OusEL ; Water-Pyet ; Water-Craw ; 
Water -Crow; Burnbecker ; Water - Peggie ; King- 
fisher. 
" There, Annan Water, pure and bright. 
The child of pastoral hills afar, . , , 
Sweeps through the vale with curve of light, 
To hazelly bank and ruddy scaur ; 
Where waging an unequal war, 
His chafing streams abruptly turn, 
Still eddying round the sedgy bar 
Of Moss-land's ousel-haunted burn. „ 
Rev. William Bennet.— " The King a Holm. 
A resident of very general distribution. 
In winter this bird is to be found along our rivers and 
streams, often gladdening the ear with its small song. In 
* British Birds (Mag.), Vol. III., p. 313. 
■f Dumfries Courier, April 30th, 1850. 
