SIDE LIGHTS ON BIRDS 



standing on the wooden biidge and looking up- 

 stream, the crystal-clear water is spread out in a 

 succession of rippling flats, dotted here and 

 there with isolated boulders and many smaller 

 partly submerged stones. Here, every morning 

 one or more dippers were to be seen. One, in 

 particular, would flit through the arches, and 

 take up its position on a little promontory of 

 shingle directly beneath the bridge. Soon it 

 would indulge in little gambols and evolutions, 

 walking far into the shallow water with its head 

 submerged, until its dark back alone could be 

 seen above the surface. Then, with a quick little 

 run, the back would go under altogether, and the 

 dusky shadow would then be seen continuing its 

 course under water for a yard or so, re-appearing 

 unobtrusively on the opposite bank of pebbles 

 and nodding its head. Certainly it appeared 

 to run on the bed of the stream when completely 

 submerged, exactly as it did when the water was 

 too shallow altogether to conceal it. It appeared 

 to be carried on by its own impetus and at this 

 point no extension of the wmgs, beyond a slight 

 upward flip, could be observed. A little later it 

 would flit to a large stone a few yards away, when 

 it would enter a little pool bending to wash itself 

 with ruffled feathers as a thrush might, ever and 

 again giving odd little runs in the water, turning 

 abruptly to right or left, as a duckling does when 

 catching flies, sometimes above water and some- 

 times below. At the end of each whimsical little 

 gambol it would always turn up most sedately 

 upon some adjacent stone, as though rather 

 ashamed of its escapade. 



These evolutions were seen only in the early 

 morning. Once, when startled by a noisy 

 passenger crossing the bridge, the bird flew 



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