58 THE DIPPER LIBELLED. 
which is specifically lighter than water, can ma- 
nage, by some inherent power, to walk on the 
ground at the bottom of a rivulet, then there is 
great reason to hope that we, who are heavier 
than air, may any day rise up into it, unassisted 
by artificial apparatus, such as wings, gas, steam, 
or broom-staff.’ 
Although the feet are strictly those of a 
percher, still the dipper can swim like a duck, 
and as I have often seen a diver spread its 
wings, and literally fly when under water; so this 
bird, in order to escape, if suddenly alarmed, 
frequently goes a long distance down-stream, 
using its wings beneath the water, much in the 
same manner as it would if flying through the 
air. 
The poor little dipper has many terrible and 
implacable enemies; they saddle him with crimes 
and offences against the fisheries that he does 
not deserve, brand him as a poacher, offer re- 
wards for his head, and ruthlessly take his life. 
Farmers, gardeners, gamekeepers, and managers 
of fisheries, actuated, I doubt not, by the 
purest motives for good, are nevertheless too 
prone to nail their best friends to the barn-door. 
Destroy the feathered police, and hosts of 
insect marauders, that laugh at guns, traps, 
poison, or rewards, will most surely mow down 
