Surrounded as we are, locally, by clear and quick running 
streams through rocky and wooded banks, we are at once in the 
very haunts of the Dipper, and so have every opportunity of 
studying its habits. 
There is not a river running by our Ancient City—Eden, 
Petteril, Caldew, and, with a few exceptions, their tributaries—but 
what on their banks and in their waters the Dipper finds a home 
and food. 
The Dipper cannot boast of a very elegant figure, being some- 
thing like the starling, but more perhaps like the wren in shape— 
short and stumpy. ‘The length of the bird, from the tip of the bill 
to the end of the tail, is about seven inches and a half, and it 
weighs something like two ounces and a half. The plumage, which 
is always neat and trim, is very sober in color, consisting principally 
of brown, white, and grey. Head and neck dark brown, dark grey 
back and sides, shading into black ; throat and upper part of the 
breast pure white, lower part of the breast chesnut brown. ‘The 
pure white of the throat and breast is a very conspicuous object 
as the bird is seen sitting quietly on some water-surrounded stone 
along the river side; and you can often tell the Dipper by this 
characteristic when a great way off before you can see the outline 
of the bird. From the fact of the Dipper having so many popular 
names—and I have gathered a number of these—we may draw 
conclusions at once that the bird has something more than usually 
interesting about it. For, as a rule, I find that popular names are 
not applied to birds, insects, or plants, unless they have some 
specific habits, powers, or virtues above their kindred. The 
meaning of the scientific name of the bird, Ciuclus aquaticus, is 
from Cinclus, a bird that has .a habit of moving its tail; and 
aquaticus pertaining to water. Cinclus is known generally as the 
Dipper; but in some districts it goes by the name of Bessie 
Ducker, or Peggy Ducker, or to give the name its right value, I 
should pronounce it Dooker; in others it is known by the names 
of Water Crow, Water Piet, and Water Ouzel; or by Ducks and 
Ducker. In some parts of Scotland it is the Water Pipit, in others 
the Kingfisher, which is also an Irish name for it. So if you are 
