56 • NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



The only other species at all allied to the single North American one 

 are the C. ardesiacus of Central America, and C. paUasi of Eastern Asia. 

 They may be easily distinguished by the following characters- — 



Plumage beneath scarcely lighter than that above; head and neck brownish, 

 darkest above. Wing, 4.00 ; tail, 2.15; bill, .50; tarsus, 1.20 ; middle toe. .85. 

 Legs (in life), pinkish white (8,496 Fort Mass. N. M.). IIab. Mountains of 

 Middle Province from Sitka, south to Gruatemala . . . var. mexicamis. 



Plumage beneath much lighter than that above, — very light along the median, 

 line ; head not brownish, the contrast in shade between upper and lower sur- 

 faces very marked. Wing, 3.50; tail, 2.05; bill, .45; tarsus, 1.30; middle toe, 

 .90. Legs yellow. (42,788^ Costa Rica). Hab. Guatemala and Costa Rica. 



var. ardesiacus.^ 



Plumage uniform dusky-brown, middle of belly blackish ; bach and rump squam- 

 ated luith Mack; wings and tail blackish-brown. Total length, 8.00; wing, 

 4.00; tail, 2.50; tarsus, 1.25; bill (to rictus), 1.10 (Salvin). Hab. Lake Baikal 

 to Kamtschatka ; A moorland; S.E.Siberia; Japan (Salvin) . . var. 2^ all a si.- 



Cinclus mexicanus, Swains. 



AMERICAN DIPPER; WATER OUZEL. 



Cinclus pallasi, BoN. Zool. Jour. II, 1827, 52 (not the Asiatic species). Cinclus ynexicanus, 

 Sw. Phil. Mag. 1827, 368. — Sclateu, Catal. 1861, 10. — Salvin, Ibis, 1860, 190; 

 1867, 120 (Guatemala). — Baied, Eeview, 60. — Dall & Bannister (Alaska). — 

 Cooper, Birds Cal. I, 25. Hyclrohata mexicana, Baird, Birds N. Am. 1858, 229. — 

 Cooper & Suckley, Rep. P. E. R. XFI, 11, 1859, 175 (nest). Cinclus americaniis, 

 Rich. F. B. A. II, 1831, 273. Cinclus unicolor, Bon. ; C. mortoni, Towns. ; C. toivn- 

 sendi, "AuD." Towns. 



Figures: Bonaparte, Am. Orn. II, 1828, pi. xvi, fig. 1. — Aud. Orn. Biog. pi. ccchxx, 

 435. — Ib. Birds Amer. II, pi. cxxxvii. 



Sp. Cn. Above dark plumbeous, beneath paler ; head and neck all round a shade of 

 clove or perhaps a light sooty-brown ; less conspicuous beneath. A concealed spot of 

 white above the anterior corner of the eye and indications of the same sometimes on the 

 lower eyelid. Immature specimens usually with the feathers beneath edged with grayish- 

 white ; the greater and middle wing-coverts and lesser quills tipped with the same. The 

 colors more uniform. Length, 7.50 ; wing, 4.00; tail, 2.55. 



Young. Similar to the adult, but much mixed with whitish medially beneath; this in 

 form of longitudinal suffusions. 



Autumnal and winter specimens have numerous transverse crescents of whitish on 

 lower parts and wings, — these very especially conspicuous posteriorly; the secondaries 

 are also conspicuously terminated with a white crescent. Bill brown, paler toward base 

 of lower mandible. In spring and summer the bill entirely black, and the whitish 

 markings almost entirely disappear ; the young bird has a greater amount of Avhite be- 

 neath than the adult in winter dre.ss, and this white is disposed in longitudinal, not trans- 

 verse, suffusions. The color of the legs appears to be the same at all seasons. 



1 C. ardesiacus, Salvin, Ibis, N. S. Ill, 121, pi. ii. 



- C. pallasi, Temm. Man. d'Orn. I, p. 177. — Salvin, Ibis, III, 1867, 119. {Stunius cinclus, 

 var. Pallas, Zoogr. R. -As. I, 426.) 



