34 BIRDS OF LANCASHIRE. 



where I could see it : and I have frequently observed it 

 when the water just covered it, and its head appeared 

 above every time it lifted it up, which it did incessantly ; 

 turning over a pebble or two, then lifting its head, and 

 again putting it below to seize the creepers (larvae of 

 insects) it had disturbed. Besides, its speed was too 

 slow for diving. Every aquatic bird I know moves 

 much faster when diving than when either swimming or 

 walking, and its course is generally in a straight line, 

 or nearly so : but the Water-Ouzel, when feeding, turns 

 to the right or left, or back again to where it started, 

 stops and goes on just as it does when out of the water. 

 Yet, when it wished, it seemed to have the power of 

 altering its own gravity, as, after wading about two, or 

 perhaps five, minutes, where it could just get its head 

 out, it would suddenly rise to the surface and begin to 

 swim, which it does quite as well as the Water- 

 hen. The awkward, tumbling, shuffling wriggle is 

 occasioned by the incessant motion of its head as it 

 turns over the gravel in search of creepers, which, it 

 appears to me, form the whole of its food." He be- 

 lieves it is catching creepers when supposed to be 

 devouring salmon-spawn and goes on: " If this were the 

 case (and it is a fact well worth ascertaining) it was 

 rendering an essential service to the fisheries . . . 

 because these creepers (the larva) of the May-fly, bank- 

 fly, and all the drakes) are exceedingly destructive to 

 spawning beds, and as the Water-Ouzel feeds on them 

 at all other times, and as they are more abundant in 

 the winter than at any other season, I think this is the 

 more probable supposition." The Dipper, however, 

 certainly feeds on fish sometimes, for on Jul}' 11th, 

 1879, I disturbed a bird from a nest beneath which was 

 quite a heap of young minnows, and Mr. T. Altham 



