io6 love's meinie. 



I can always describe the neck- feathers, as 

 such, when birds have any neck to speak of; 

 but when, as the majority of dabchicks, they 

 have not any, — instead of talking of ' throat- 

 feathers ' and * stomach-feathers,' which both 

 seem to me rather ugly words, I shall call 

 the breast feathers the 'chemisette,' and all 

 below them the 'bodice.' 



I am now able, without incivility, to dis- 

 tinguish the two families of Water- ouzel. 

 Both have white chemisettes, but the common 

 water-ouzel (Cinclus aquaticus of Gould) has 

 a white bodice, and the other a black one, the 

 bird being called therefore, in ugly Greek, 

 * Melanogaster,' ' black-stomached.' The black 

 bodice is Norwegian fashion — the white, 

 English ; and I find that in Switzerland there 

 is an intermediate Robin-ouzel, with a red 

 bodice : but the ornithologists are at variance 

 as to his ' specific ' existence. The chemisette 

 is always white. 



91. However dressed, and wherever born, 

 the Ouzel is essentially a mountain-torrent 

 bird, and, Bewick says, may be seen perched 

 on a stone in the midst of a stream, in a con- 

 tinual dipping motion, or short curtsey often 



