FAMILY CinclidcB 



The eye is provided with a nictitating mem- 

 brane, or third eyehd, which protects it from 

 injury in its underwater journeys. 



The dipper is common in the mountains 

 of the Pacific Slope, in many places following 

 the streams down to the foothills where it 

 may be seen darting ahead of the fisherman 

 as he works upstream, or standing on a water- 

 worn boulder bobbing up and down in its 

 peculiar fashion. The relationship of the 

 dipper to other families has been in dispute 

 for many years but its resemblance to the 

 wrens is striking, and its bobbing and atti- 

 tudinizing is very -wTen-like. 



The dipper has strong feet and sharp claws 

 with which it is enabled to walk deliberately 

 into swift water and disappear without effort, 

 using its wings to fly under water. It will 

 appear up or down stream fifty or more feet 

 from where it went in, quietly step out of the 

 water to rest a minute and then plunge in 

 again. No water seems too swift or rough for 

 it to enter. Its food consists of minute marine 

 life such as periwinkles and the like which it 

 collects from the bottom of the streams. 

 Fishermen claim that it destroys the eggs of 

 the brook trout but this has yet to be proven. 



The dipper is one of the most interesting 

 and delightful of all the small birds of the 

 46 



