THE WATEK OUZEL, OR DIPPER. 
( CINCL US A Q UA TIC US . ) 
Year after year I had tried without success to rear from 
the nest these very interesting and singular birds, and not- 
withstanding repeated failures, I had not only persevered 
in the endeavour to do so, but induced others to make the 
attempt. In these efforts I had been aided by several friends, 
and among others Mr. R. J. L. Price, of Merionethshire, a 
Fellow of the Society. This gentleman kindly forwarded 
the nests of young birds, and, from time to time, by trying 
almost every kind of insect and other food, I succeeded for 
a while to rear the birds, but just when my efforts appeared 
likely to succeed, a change would take place and the birds 
would die one after another. Sometimes they would get 
too wet and die, apparently, of cramp ; others that had 
been kept away from the water wasted and died of ex- 
haustion. It was quite evident that I had not discovered 
a food that suited them ; they had been tried with the 
usual food for most insect-eating birds, such as scraped 
beef and hard-boiled eggs, ant eggs, mealworms, spiders, 
flies, beetles, aquatic snails, shrimps, salmon spawn, and 
many other mixtures, but all failed, until my clerk and 
assistant, Mr. Arthur Thomson, who had taken as much 
interest in rearing these birds as myself, hit upon the idea 
of scalding the mealworms, and tried it. , It was soon 
apparent that in this condition the mealworms could be 
digested, while in a raw or living state they (especially 
their hard skins) would pass through the birds in a hard 
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