2l6 



THE ANGLER'S SOUVENIR. 



There are two vexed questions concerning the 

 dipper, which have caused a great amount of con- 

 troversy. One is, What does the dipper eat ? and 

 the other is, Can it walk under water? With 

 regard to the former, our observation has con- 

 vinced us that the dipper lives almost exclusively 

 upon insects. Now and then, it is possible he 

 may gobble up a few grains of spawn which have 

 escaped from their bed, but it is clear that if the 

 dipper did not eat them the fish would. Numbers 

 of dippers have been shot through the mistaken 

 idea that they are great devourers of spawn, and 

 they have much decreased in consequence. This 

 is a thousand pities, and we wish to say what we 

 can to stop useless and cruel massacre. Assertion 

 is no use without proof, and no one can prove that 

 the dipper eats spawn, while abundant proof can 

 be adduced to the contrary. It will be sufficient 

 for us now to quote the opinions of three well- 

 known naturalists. 



Macgillivray says : "I have opened a great number 

 of individuals at all seasons of the year, but have 

 never found any other substances in the stomach 

 than lymnce, ancyli, coleoptera, and grains of gravel.'' 



Gould says " During my visit, in November, 

 1859, to Penoyre, the seat of Col. Watkyns, on the 

 river Usk, the water-ouzels were very plentiful, and 

 the keeper informed me that they were then feed- 

 ing on the recently deposited roe of the trout and 

 salmon. By the colonel's desire five specimens were 



