285 



D I P P E R. 



blackish blue. The female is very like the male, 

 except that the head is darker brown, and the white 

 on the breast dull coloured. The young- are grey on 

 the head and part of the back, and have more white 

 on the breast, but it is broke by mottlings, and they 

 have also some white on the margins of the wing- 

 feathers. 



Dipper. 



These birds breed early in the season, and con- 

 etruct their nests in general with a great deal of care. 

 The nest is formed under a projecting stone in a hole 

 of the rock, or even in a hole of the wall, if the situa- 

 tion is sufficiently retired and near the water. This 

 nest usually consists of a great quantity of materials, 

 generally vegetable, as the stems and leaves of aquatic 

 plants, dry moss, and the leaves of trees ; but the 

 structure is differently described by different authors, 

 and may be different in different circumstances and 

 under different exposures. Of course we do not know 

 the instinct which leads birds to build nests differing so 

 much from each other as they are in different species, 

 or indeed what leads them to build nests at all ; but 

 as they must in some manner be regulated by cir- 

 cumstances, they will, of course, make their structures 

 in accordance with these. If the nest is immediately 

 under a projecting roof, it is natural to suppose that 

 though the bird might give it a dome in a more ex- 

 posed situation, it might be satisfied with a natural 

 one where that presented itself. The eggs are de- 

 scribed as being four or five, of a pure white colour, 

 semi-transparent, long in their shape, and very much 

 pointed at their small ends. This is sufficient to show 

 that there is not much philosophy in an opinion 

 ometimes advanced, that the form of the egg bears 

 some analogy to that of the bird ; for the dipper is in 

 every way a short bird in its body, its wings, and its 

 tail. The young dippers are ravenous eaters ; and the 

 nest with young in it is easily detected by their chirping. 



Dippers are with us found only in the streams of 

 hilly countries, which run over beds of sand or gravel, 

 and have their waters clear and transparent ; and it is 

 an especial frequenter of those little pools between the 

 rapids, where trouts resort to deposit their spawn. 

 The spawn of fishes, their fry, when young and in the 

 breeding pools, and water insects, are understood to 

 form the chief subsistence of the dipper ; and us 

 this kind of provisions is found more early in 

 the season than almost any other food for an animal 

 feeding bird, the dipper is enabled to find food for its 

 young sooner in the year than those birds which resort 



to the hill and the brake in those localities. Indeed, 

 though it is confined to the margins of streams, and to 

 those of streams of a particular character, and there- 

 fore not distributed in breadth over any part of the 

 country, the dipper runs less hazard from famine than 

 most other birds, except in severe winters, when it is 

 frozen out. This, too, is a circumstance of rare occur- 

 rence in most of the haunts of the dipper ; because, 

 in most of those localities in which it delights, which 

 are the dells of the secondary hills, not far from 

 the low country, but always above those places at 

 which the bottom begins to be oozy, and the water 

 turbid with mud, there are always springs breaking 

 out from such a depth as that they seldom freeze ; 

 and there are many little animals which intrust their 

 young to such springs, and thus, in case of necessity, 

 furnish the dippers with food until the frost breaks. 



If the rivulet is open, the dipper is perfectly inde- 

 pendent, because it can procure its food under the 

 water as readily as on the bank. It is true that it is 

 not web-footed, and consequently it is not a swimmer, 

 neither are its general characters those of a water bird. 

 Still it is a bird which can turn the water to great 

 account, and it seems to know this as well, for it is 

 apparently never happy but when the water is imme- 

 diately within its reach, and always happy when it is 

 so. It is seldom seen at any great distance from its 

 favourite rivulet ; and when it is found at some little 

 distance it is timid, as if it were without the security 

 of that which forms its castle. When, however, it is 

 near the water, it is far from being a shy bird ; but, 

 though it is very easily seen, it is by no means easy 

 to catch. 



Its usual action when sitting on the points of the 

 little pieces of rock and detached stones in the pools, 

 consists of a continual bending down of the head, and 

 a flirting up of the tail at the same time ; and it is 

 from this peculiar motion of the head, and not from 

 the fact of its getting into the water, that it is called 

 the dipper. From the shortness and broadness of its 

 wings, and the compactness of its body, it gets very 

 quickly into flight, and it skims along the surface of 

 the water, almost touching with its wings at every 

 stroke ; and, when flying in this manner, it appears to 

 get on more rapidly and with less fatigue than when 

 it is higher above the surface. It is highly probable 

 that all birds which have this habit of skimming along 

 the surface of the water, find a relief in so doing, not 

 only from the cooling, but from the greater resistance 

 which is there offered to the down stroke of their 

 wings, from the difficulty with which the air escapes 

 from between the wing and the water. 



The dipper can get under water with great facility, 

 and walk along the bottom, and probably also come 

 to the surface, and take wing from the water ; though 

 in general it comes to the bank for this purpose. Its 

 plumage is very waterproof, and it is never wetted or 

 ruffled by these immersions, one of which would effec- 

 tually prevent the flight of any ordinary land bird. It 

 has sometimes been objected to this under-water habit 

 of the dipper, that as it cannot swim on the surface 

 like the aquatic birds properly so called, or run on the 

 surface like some of the long-toed birds, it cannot get 

 below, because it is specifically lighter than the water, 

 and has no purchase of the feet from which to thrust 

 itself down ; but the dipper turns its head and it* 

 wings to very good account in performing this opera- 

 tion. The dipping motion of the head gets that part 

 under water ; and the wings are partially under water 

 at the ame time. Then the elevation of the head, 



