THE DIPPER 309 



mid-air, and then flew away. When I looked round the dippers had 

 disappeared, and guessing that they would remain in hiding for 

 some time, I left the glade." a 



One would like to close the account of such an experience with 

 the words : " they lived happily ever afterwards." According, how- 

 ever, to Mr. Torr the domestic life of this pair of dippers was not 

 without its crosses. They started well, both energetically setting 

 about the construction of the nest, which was placed in a hollow of 

 the bank beneath the shelter of a projecting rock. The cock did 

 most of the carrying, the hen most of the building. But in the 

 opinion of the cock and also of Mr. Torr, who was evidently prejudiced 

 in favour of his own sex, the hen did not do her fair share of the 

 work. She was " distinctly lazy ; she often neglected the nest for an 

 hour, and amused herself by dipping in the stream in search of grubs 

 and water larvae." Mr. Torr adds that it " was very pretty to watch 

 her dash into the water, scattering drops to right and left, leaving 

 widening circles of ripple behind her, and reappear with the sunlight 

 gleaming on her dark plumage, bringing out lights of glossy green and 

 bronze amid the black." But neither the graces nor the healthy 

 appetite of the little lady availed to soften the hearts of the two stern 

 unbending males who watched her. It did not even occur to them 

 that she knew better than any one whether or not there was need of 

 haste. Her husband, indeed, "the poor little cock," after getting 

 together a pile of material, would, on finding his wife still at her 

 reprehensible feasting and flaunting, work himself into a state of 

 high moral indignation, and proceed to chase her up and down and 

 round about, until " persuaded " to continue her work. And it is 

 evident that Mr. Torr would gladly have assisted him, had it been 



1 Country Life, August 4, 1900, p. 172. Mr. J. A. Harvie-Brown has given a good account of 

 the clipper sex displays in the Zoologist, 1861, p. 7505. He saw one day a pair sitting on a stone 

 and jerking up their tails. "The male bird would while sitting erect its head till its bill 

 pointed straight upwards, and pour forth a small but pleasing song, and the female, uttering 

 her usual note, would hop round and round her mate, every now and then flirting her 

 tail and spreading out her wings, as if in the act of making a courtesy. The male bird 

 while singing turned round as if on a pivot, so as always to face his partner. After thus 

 amusing themselves and us, they would fly further down the stream and there re- 

 commence." 



