BLACK WATER-OUSEL, OR DIPPER. 359 



hind the waterfall when it overshoots the impending 

 rocks. Water is, in fact, their proper element, though 

 they are neither fitted to swim nor to wade with ordinary 

 aquatic birds, but they walk or fly with ease beneath it, 

 across streams from bank to bank ; they even walk in this 

 way submerged, among the gravel against the force of the 

 current. When the water becomes deep enough for 

 them to plunge, they open and drop their wings, with an 

 agitated motion, and with the head stretched out, as in 

 the ordinary act of flying in the air, descend to the bot- 

 tom, and there, as if on the ground, course up and down 

 in quest of food. While under the water, to which their 

 peculiar plumage is impermeable, they appear silvered 

 over with rapidly escaping aerial bubbles, and bid defi- 

 ance to every enemy while defended in so singlar a re- 

 treat. When out of the water they also run with rapidi- 

 ty, and fly direct and swift as an arrow, skimming the 

 surface of their favorite element, in the manner of the 

 Kingfisher ; and at the next moment, as the case may be, 

 they are perhaps seen to plunge out of sight without 

 alighting, and, like the Loon, again come into view in 

 the eluding distance. While on the wing they utter a 

 shrill and feeble cry, occasionally varied ; and in the 

 very depths of winter and early spring contribute to cheer 

 their wild and dreary haunts by their simple, clear, and 

 sweetly warbled notes. 



They pair early, and are said to raise two broods in 

 the season. The young, while yet unfledged, escape 

 from threatening danger by dropping from their impend- 

 ing nest into the surrounding water. This curious cra- 

 dle, by the side of some romantic mountain rivulet, on 

 the ledge of a rock, steep mossy bank, or near some fallen 

 block from the clifl*, is made in the form of a dome, the 

 frame-work often of moss ijiypna) and sweet wood-roof 



