BRITISH BIRDS. 1 3 



It can never be too often repeated that all the birds 

 included in the thrush family, many of which, but not all, 

 have been mentioned in the precedinoj paragraphs, feed, for 

 at least nine months in the year, entirely on insects and 

 other pests of the gardener, arboriculturist, and farmer, 

 and during the remaining three months (unless abnormally 

 numerous in a given locality) do far less mischief than is 

 commonly supposed, their destruction having always been 

 followed by far greater evil than any they might have 

 caused, namely, the multiplication of noxious insects of all 

 kinds, which the birds had kept in check, as the latter 

 would have been by the hawks and owls if these 

 had not been destroyed off the face of the earth by 

 game-preservers and their satellites, to say nothing of 

 farmers who kill a sparrow-hawk for swooping at one 

 chick, but forget the benefit the bird has conferred by 

 destroying shoals of mice. 



THE DIPPER AND THE BEARDED TIT. 



These birds are now^ separated, the one from the 

 thrushes and the other from the tits, a differentiation 

 which we think to be superfluous, but accept for the 

 sake of uniformity, as well as for facility of reference. 

 The first of the two is familiarly known as the Dipper. 



Family — Cinclidcv. 



Genus — Cinclus. C. aquaticiis. 



Head and upper part of the back of the neck dark rusty 

 brown ; the remaining upper parts of the body greyish 

 black, except the flights, which are blackish brown ; chin, 

 throat, and upper half of the breast white ; lower half of 

 the breast ruddy brown ; belly and under tail coverts 

 grej'ish-black ; bill, legs, and feet, slate grey. Length, 7f 

 inches; tail, 2 ; wings, from tip to tip, 12§. 



