58 THE DIPPER LIBELLED. 



which is specifically lighter than water, can ma- 

 nage, by some inherent power, to walk on the 

 ground at the bottom of a rivulet, then there is 

 great reason to hope that we, who are heavier 

 than air, may any day rise up into it, unassisted 

 by artificial apparatus, such as wings, gas, steam, 

 or broom-staff.' 



Although the feet are strictly those of a 

 percher, still the dipper can swim like a duck, 

 and as I have often seen a diver spread its 

 wings, and literally fly when under water ; so this 

 bird, in order to escape, if suddenly alarmed, 

 frequently goes a long distance down-stream, 

 using its wings beneath the water, much in the 

 same manner as it would if flying through the 

 air. 



The poor little dipper has many terrible and 

 implacable enemies; they saddle him with crimes 

 and offences against the fisheries that he does 

 not deserve, brand him as a poacher, offer re- 

 wards for his head, and ruthlessly take his life. 

 Farmers, gardeners, gamekeepers, and managers 

 of fisheries, actuated, I doubt not, by the 

 purest motives for good, are nevertheless too 

 prone to nail their best friends to the barn-door. 

 Destroy the feathered police, and hosts of 

 insect marauders, that laugh at guns, traps, 

 poison, or rewards, will most surely mow down 



