28 DIPPER. 



Family— CINCLID.E. 



Genus— CINCLUS. 



CINCLUS AQUATICUS— Dipper. 



A cheerful bird, tliat loves the stream, 



And the stream's voice, and answers, in like strains, 



Murmuring deliciously. Grahame. 



The Water Ouzel, as this interesting bird is more commonly 

 called, is not uncommon on many of the weirs, waterfalls, and 

 smaller streams of the county. Unlike the Kingfisher, it seems to 

 prefer their seclusion to the more open spaces of the larger rivers, 

 the Wye and the Lugg. In the very centre of the county Mr. J. H. 

 Arkwright encourages its presence in the lawn rivulet of Hampton 

 Court, but it is to be found on most of the small upland streams of 

 the county, especially in the upper waters of the Lugg, where it may 

 often be seen, perched on a large stone, or shooting with a swift and 

 sudden flight, close to the surface of the water. 



The food of the Water Ouzel consists principally of beetles, 

 the larvae of flies, fresh water shrimps, and other aquatic insects, and 

 occasionally very small fish. The persecution to which this bird has 

 been subjected by gamekeepers and water bailiffs, on the charge that 

 it feeds upon the spawn of the salmon and the trout, has been clearly 

 proved to be quite unjust. Mr. Saxby proved it in the " Zoologist " 

 for 1868, and Mr. Frank Buckland in his book on " Fish-hatching," 

 showed as the result of upwards of forty dissections of Water Ouzels, 

 killed on the spawniiig beds, that so far from eating the salmon and 

 trout eggs, it actually protects them, by destroying vast numbers of 

 the water insects and larvae which do prey upon the ova. The Water 

 Ouzel has the very remarkable power of walking on the bed of the 

 stream under water to search for its food ; and the younger birds, 

 just fledged from the nest, have this power as well as the older birds. 



The birds seem always to associate in pairs, and build year 

 after year in the same localities, and generally near a waterfall or 

 quick running water. They are fond of building under bridges, and 

 on the northern side of the county, in one instance, the stonework 



