98 DIPPER. 



British Museum, it appears to me that C. melanogaster is merely a 

 dark form which inhabits the northern countries of Europe, as well 

 as the higher mountain regions of the south. Even in Derbyshire 

 the Dippers from the Peak district at 1,500 feet are darker than birds 

 from 1,000 feet lower down ; and examples from the iipper portions 

 of the narrow valleys of the Pyrenees above Luz, as well as the 

 lofty Cantabrian Mountains, in North-western Spain, are indistin- 

 guishable from Scandinavian specimens. At lower elevations, and 

 also on the river Genii near Granada, the Dippers have a broad 

 chestnut band, and belong to a race intermediate between our 

 British form and another — paler on the back — called by separatists 

 C. albicollis ; the last-named inhabiting the Alps, the Carpathians, 

 Italy and Greece. From the Caucasus and Asia Minor eastward to 

 Tibet, intergraduating races lead to the browner-backed C. cash- 

 viiriensis ; while in the Atlas Mountains is found yet another form, 

 distinguished by Canon Tristram as C. minor. Judging from the 

 above I still (1897) consider it advisable to treat both the forms of 

 Dipper which occur in our islands under one heading, while admitting 

 that the extremes of each race are recognizable. 



The nest is a large oval ball of moss, grass or leaves, and 

 generally lined with dead leaves; the entrance being low down in the 

 side. It is placed in a hole under a bridge, in the wall of a mill-dam, 

 in a bank, or on a ledge of rock, often behind a cascade of water ; 

 sometimes in the boughs of low trees overhanging a river. The 

 4-6 eggs are of a dull white: measurements i in. by 75 in. Fully 

 fledged young have been found on March 21st; and not only are two 

 and even three broods reared in the season, but a second or even third 

 clutch of eggs is occasionally deposited in the same nest. The song, 

 begun in autumn, may frequently be heard throughout the winter, and 

 always early in spring. The food consists of soft-shelled molluscs, 

 spiders, aquatic beetles and other insects, with their larvje, many of 

 which are known to be destructive to the spawn of trout and salmon. 

 The bird sinks in a peculiar way, without taking a " header "; in pursuit 

 of its prey, it employs both legs and wings, using the latter like oars, 

 and the young are able to swim freely as soon as they leave the nest. 



Adult : head and nape umber-brown ; back and tail-coverts slate- 

 grey, mottled with brown ; tail and wing-feathers dark brown ; chin, 

 throat and upper breast white ; lower breast dark chestnut-brown, 

 passing into black on the flanks and lower belly ; bill brownish- 

 black ; legs and feet brown. Length 7 in.; wing 3-6 in. The 

 sexes are alike in plumage. The young are greyish-brown above, 

 and have no chestnut-brown on the under parts. 



