244 CINCLTDJS. 



At present it seems more cannot be said of the range 

 of our Dipper on the continent than that it seems to occur 

 generally in suitable localities throughout Central Europe ; 

 for the Dipper which inhabits Scandinavia is by many orni- 

 thologists regarded as a distinct species under the name of 

 Cinclus melanogaster, while again that which is found in 

 Switzerland and most of the mountainous parts of Southern 

 Europe is believed to form a third species, the C. alhicolUs. 

 Thus much has been set forth in a most able paper on the 

 birds of this genus (Ibis, 1867, p. 109) by Mr. Salvin ; but 

 the view he then took has been somewhat unsettled by the 

 subsequent discovery by Canon Tristram (torn. cit. p. 466) 

 that it is the Scandinavian form which breeds in the Pyre- 

 nees. That C. melanogaster occasionally wandered from its 

 northern home (and it is found in Lapland a long way within 

 the Arctic Circle), was already known and caused no surprise ; 

 but the fact of its inhabiting a mountain-range so far to the 

 south, while the intervening countries are presumably occu- 

 pied by a different form, makes a belief in the specific dis- 

 tinctness of the two somewhat hard to accept. For this 

 reason therefore, it has not been thought advisable to include 

 the black-breasted Dipper in this work under a separate 

 heading, though there is excellent authority for its occasional 

 occurrence in England. Mr. Stevenson, in his ' Birds of 

 Norfolk,' has shewn that nearly all the Dippers killed in that 

 county want the chestnut-brown band on the breast, and have 

 every indication of being of Scandinavian origin. Mr. J. H. 

 Gurney, Junior, too, has in his collection a black-breasted 

 Dipper which was obtained in Yorkshire. 



The Dipper is secluded in its habits ; and it rarely hap- 

 pens that more than two are seen together except in summer, 

 when the parents are accompanied by their young. Its 

 flight is rapid and even, not unlike that of the Kingfisher ; 

 while it much resembles the Wren in its song, its habit of 

 elevating and jerking its tail, its general manners, and the 

 form of its domed nest. This last, as here represented from 

 a specimen received from Yorkshire by the late Mr. Salmon, 

 consists of an irregularly- shaped exterior casing, some seven 



