COMMON DIPPER. 255 
the upper parts much paler than in our bird. It is found in Southern 
Spain, Algiers, Italy, and Greece. In Asia Minor, the Caucasus, and Persia 
the chestnut on the belly is much darker and the brown of the head and 
nape extends lower down the back. This form may be called C. albicollis- 
cashmiriensis ; for in the latter race (C. cashmiriensis), which ranges from 
Cashmere, through South Siberia, to West China, the brown of the head 
and nape attains its greatest development on the back, and all traces of 
chestnut on the breast are lost in the brown of the belly. This race would 
appear to interbreed, on the one hand,with C. leucogaster, for in Krasnoyarsk 
(where the ranges of the two forms coalesce) every intermediate form is 
found,—and, on the other hand, with C. sordida, for in the Altai Mountains 
(where the ranges of these two forms coalesce) every intermediate form occurs. 
In Scandinavia and the adjacent countries of North Germany C. melano- 
gaster is found with dark head and neck, and with the chestnut below the 
breast replaced by nearly black. ‘This race is connected with the South- 
European form by what we may call C. melanoyaster-albicollis from the 
Carpathians, in which the chestnut reappears beiow the breast. 
Besides these variations there are others still more local. In the Peak 
of Derbyshire, for example, the Dippers, which are found 1500 feet above 
the level of the sea, are darker in colour than those which are found lower 
dowu the valleys, only 500 feet above the sea-level. The same differences 
have been recorded in Dippers from the Pyrenees ; and it is birds of the 
year of these forms from Ingh elevations which have led so many orni- 
thologists astray in speaking of the geographical range of Cinclus aquaticus, 
var. melanogaster. 
The haunts of the Dipper are exclusively confined to the swift-flowing 
rocky mountain-streams. On these he is found all the year round, in places 
where the waters now curl over hidden rocks, or dash round the exposed 
and mossy ones, and toss and fall in never-ceasing strife. The banks must 
be rugged also to suit the Dipper, all the better if in the rock-clefts a few 
mountain-ashes and birches have gained a good hold. But the Dipper is 
not a bird of the branches. You will make your first acquaintance with 
him most probably as he dashes rapidly from some water-encircled rock, 
or as he shoots past you uttering his sharp but monotonous call-note, to 
alight on some distant stone, or mayhap seek the boiling current itself, to 
‘astonish and amuse you by his aquatic gambols. The Dipper is also 
found on the barest of mountain-torrents, places where not a tree or 
shrub is found, where the waters roll and tumble in wildest mood across 
the heathery moors, and down the bare mountain-sides. In the British 
Isles the Dipper is not a migratory bird, the only wanderers being young 
birds which emigrate or are driven by their parents from too crowded 
districts. During the keenest weather the resident Dippers do not 
quit the waters of the roaring stream, and are as active amongst the 
