132 BIRDS OF TUNISIA 



Family CINCLID^. 



CINCLDS MELANOGASTER, C. L. Brehm. 

 DIPPER. 



Cinclus melanogaster, Brehm, Lehrb. Eur. Vdg. i, p. 289 (1823). 



C. cinclus, Sliarjie, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. vi, p. 311. 



C. aquaticus, Loche, Expl. Sci. Alg. Ois. i, p. 305 (1867) ; Koenig, 



J. f. O. 1888, p. 175 ; id. J./. 0. 1892, p. 374. 

 C. minor, Tristram,, Ibis, 1870, p. 497. 



Description. — Adult, spnng, from Sicily. 



Top of the head and nape dark brown, shading into dark slate on the 

 upper parts, which are slightly squamated on the back and rump ; wings and 

 tail blackish-brown ; chin, throat and breast pure white ; abdomen rusty 

 blackish-brown ; flank and crissum dark slate. 



Iris and bill dark brown ; feet light brown. 



Total length 6 inches, wing 3-40, culmen BO, tarsus 1-10. 



Sexes alike. 



Young birds have the upper-plumage more squamated or scaly in 

 appearance, and the under plumage almost entirely white. 



According to several authorities the Dipper, or a form of it, occurs 

 in Algeria and Marocco, and although I have no actual note of its 

 occurrence in Tunisia, the species in all probability is to be found 

 there also, inhabiting the more mountainous and better watered 

 districts of the north-west of the Regency. Canon Tristram met 

 with the Dipper in the Atlas Mountains of Algeria, but finding its 

 measurements less than those of typical specimens, distinguished this 

 bird as C. minor, stating, however, that " in coloration it exactly 

 coincides with the true G. aquaticus" {Ibis, 1870, p. 497). The 

 measurements given by him of G. minor are as follows : whole length 

 5'75 inches, wing 2'90, tail 1'90, bill from gape -(Sb. Loche mentions 

 having obtained two examples of the Dipper in the neighbourhood of 

 Oued-el-Kebir, but states that the species seems to be extremely rare 

 in Algeria, and is presumably only a bird of passage (Expl. Scient. Alg. 

 Ois. i, p. 306). An Algerian specimen which I have examined in the 

 Turati Collection of the Milan Museum, numbered 17,631, and which 

 is presumably one of the two examples above referred to, differs in no 



