THE DIPPER 315 



reappear and dive again, and perhaps end by taking wing ; but when 

 pursued by a bird of prey, it will, as already described in Mr. Torr's 

 account, seek to escape by flight only, either going inland or scudding 

 over the stream. I can only explain this strange behaviour by the 

 assumption either that the bird is much more terrified by hawks than 

 human beings, and so loses its wits, reverting to the instincts of its 

 pre-aquatic days, or else that it dares not face the momentary pause 

 necessitated by its habit of alighting on the water before diving 

 instead of plunging straight in head-first. 1 



The dispersal of the dipper family, whether of the first or subse- 

 quent broods, for as many as three may be reared, and sometimes from 

 the same nest, is a subject about which there is little or no published 

 information. Yet disperse they do, for, as already noted, the dipper 

 tolerates no company but his own or his mate's during the winter 

 months, unless compelled by frost to do so. As the smaller brooks 

 would probably not accommodate more than two or three dippers at the 

 most, if that, some members of the family would have to make overland 

 excursions in search of new quarters in the neighbourhood, for there 

 is no evidence that they migrate to lands beyond our shores. Dippers 

 have been seen making overland flights in autumn, but to understand 

 these movements it would be necessary to mark the young, and, if 

 possible, the old, in various localities, and keep a sharp look out for 

 them during the winter. 



When once in the solitude of its winter quarters, the dipper, like 

 the robin, beguiles the tedium of the intervals between its meals by 

 song, which it utters either in flight or when perched upon a boulder. 

 Like other species, it will utter incoherent no doubt, but yet un- 

 mistakable snatches of its song when fighting. This it has been 



1 Nauinann, Vogel Mitteleuropas, ii. pp. 210, 212, states that the bird when startled from 

 its nest or roosting hole will often dive under water, but that it seeks to escape the sparrow- 

 hawk by a zig-zag flight ; Jaeckel, Vogel Bayerns, p. 13, instances the case of a dipper pursued 

 inland and taken by a crow ; Country Life, August 4, 1906 (pursued by kestrel J. R. Torr) ; 

 Macgillivray, History of British Birds (commonly dives when shot at and wounded, and will 

 do so when persistently harried) ; and Mr. J. Patterson (in litt.), who informs me that he has 

 seen it dive when shot at. But it does not always do so. 



