114 Mr. 0. Salvin on the Genus Cinclus. 



will be found identical with our Dipper. All the authors I have 

 quoted refer to the ferruginous colour of the under plumage. 

 Linnseus, on the other hand, in his concise description in the 

 'Fauna Suecica/ repeated in the ' Systema Naturae ^ (1766), 

 makes no mention of this character. Naumann states (iii. 

 p. 937) that Boie observed numerous Cincli in northern Norway 

 without finding them different from ours — and goes on to say, 

 " we cannot assume that such a difference {i. e. that between 

 C. melanogaster and C. aquaticus) could have escaped the 

 notice of so excellent an observer as Boie." Naumann had not 

 seen specimens of C melanogaster, and I hardly feel satisfied that 

 it was not that bird which Boie really observed*. 



2. Cinclus albicollis. 



Htjdrobata albicollis, Vieill., N. D. i. p. 219, and Enc. Meth. 

 p. 686 (partim). Cinclus aquaticus, var. rufiventris et albiventris, 

 Hempr. & Ehr., Symb. Phys. Aves, fol. bb (Ibis, 1859, p. 38). 

 C. aquaticus, Tristram, Ibis, 1864, p. 436, and 1866, p. 291 f- 



* 111 a paper by Brelim, publislied in ' Naumannia ' for 1856 (p. 178), 

 a number of races or varieties of the European Dipper are described. 

 Not having by any means an extensive series of skins of this bird from 

 the different parts of Europe which it inhabits, I feel that it is not possible 

 from descriptions only to determine whether or not they are entitled to 

 rank as local races. I must, however, say that it appears to me that too 

 much stress is placed upon insignificant characters, and that these " sub- 

 species," as Brelim calls them, are many of them little better than va- 

 rieties selected from the races I am able to recognize ; nor is any satis- 

 foctory law limiting their geographical distribution traceable. The 

 so-called species and subspecies appear to me to arrange themselves as 

 follows : — C. medius (p. 185) is a variety of C. aquaticus. C. meridionalis, 

 C. mfipcctoralis (p. 186), and perhaps C. rupestris belong probably to the 

 race I call C. albicollis. I should have preferred using the name C. me- 

 ridionalis, did I really know it belonged here. C. peregrinus (p. 187) 

 and C. septentrionalis (p. 188) belong to the race C. melan or/aster, which 

 doubtless has, as all the specimens I have considered to belong here, 

 twelve and not ten tail-feathers. Nothing can be satisfactorily made 

 of these birds without an examination of Brehm's types. 



t The follomng references also probably apply to this race : — 



Savi, Orn, Tosc. (1827) i. p. 200 (Tuscany); Benoit, Orn. Sicil. (1840) 

 p. 49, and Malherbe, Faun. Orn. Sicile (1843), p. 58 (Sicily) ; Orespon, Orn. 

 ("tard (1840), p. 108, and Jaubert, Rich. Orn. Mid. Fr. p. 272 (Southern 

 Prance); Cara,Orn. Sard. (1842) p. 42 (Sardinia) ; Powys, Ibis, 1860, p. 233 

 (Albania and Fpirus) : I.ilford. Ibis, 1866, p. 390 (San Ildefonso, Spain). 



