COMMON DIPPEK. 69 



of November and February (usually in severe weather), 

 upon our inland streams, as well as in the vicinity of the 

 coast. Whether or not the black-breasted water ouzel, 

 the Cinclus melanog aster, of Gould's " Birds of Europe," 

 is specifically distinct from the ordinary British form, 

 with a chesnut band across the abdomen, or merely 

 a climatal variety, undoubtedly our Norfolk specimens 

 belong to the former type. I have at different times 

 examined six or seven examples, all killed in this 

 county, which, with one exception to be hereafter men- 

 tioned, exhibited no trace of chesnut on the* under parts, 

 but were identical with" a Lapland specimen in the Nor- 

 wich museum (No. 40.b), collected in that country by the 

 late Mr. Wolley. We may naturally suppose, therefore, 

 from this circumstance, and the season at which our few 

 Norfolk specimens invariably appear, that they are chance 

 stragglers from the Scandinavian peninsula; and that 

 this opinion is entertained also by Mr. Gould, to whom 

 I communicated the above particulars for his new work 

 on " The Birds of Great Britain," is shown by his con- 

 cluding remark "I can account for their occurrence 

 in no other way." The Messrs. Paget refer to one 

 example of this bird in the collection of Mr. Youell, of 

 Yarmouth, as having been killed at Burgh in November, 

 1816 ; and Mr. Hunt in his " List" mentions Costessey 

 and Taverham as places where the dipper had occurred 

 to his knowledge. Mr. Stephen Miller, and the Rev. 

 Mr. Penrice, of Plumstead, had also each a specimen in 

 their collections, both of which I have no doubt were 

 obtained in this county. The specimen (No. 40.a) in the 

 Norwich museum is the one mentioned by Mr. Lubbock 

 in 1845, as " lately" shot at Hellesdon Mills, and two 

 others are stated, by the same author, to have been seen 

 at different times, by trustworthy observers, at Marling- 

 ford and Saxthorpe. Of more recent occurrence, I 

 may notice a male in my own collection, which was 



