358 INSECTIVOROUS BIRDS. 



BLACK WATER-OUSEL, or DIPPER. 



(Cinclus Pallasii, Temm. Bonap. Am. Orn. 3. pi. 16. fig. 1. Phil. 



Museum, No. ) 



Sp. Charact. — Wholly dark cinereous. 



This species, of a very remarkable genus, chiefly dis- 

 tinguished from that of Europe by the absence of the 

 white on the chin and throat, seems to have been first 

 noticed by Pallas in the Crimea,* and afterwards by Mr. 

 Bullock in Mexico, from whence it appears, by an ex- 

 clusive interior route, to penetrate into the wild and re- 

 mote interior of Canada as far as the shores of the Atha- 

 baska lake, where the specimen was obtained which afford- 

 ed the figure for Bonaparte's splendid Continuation of the 

 American Ornithology. 



Of the particular habits of this bird, nothing is yet 

 known. The common European species are shy and sol- 

 itary birdsj dwelling near clear and tumultuous moun- 

 tain streams, from the torrents of the Alps and Appen- 

 nines, to the wilds of Scotland. It is also seen, even by 

 the close of March, in Sweden, and Finland on the banks 

 of the Tornea, near to cataracts, in the vicinity of the 

 polar circle. t They are never seen to perch on branches, 

 frequent the gravelly beds of rivulets strewn with rocks, 

 and flit from stone to stone, at times, attentively watching 

 their aquatic prey ; as soon as it is espied, they plunge 

 after it, beneath the water to the bottom, and never 

 hesitate to enter the stream, and precipitate themselves 

 without fear or danger amidst the eddies of the brawling 

 flood. They even nest, occasionally, in the cavities, be- 



* Bonaparte is of opinion that the specimens of Temminck, received from Pallas, 

 were probably derived from America, and not from Tartary. 



t Skioldebrand's Picturesque Voyage to Cape North, p. 15, (French translation. ) 



