2l8 



THE ANGLER'S SOUVENIR. 



before the Dublin Natural History Society, and 

 which we read in " Science Gossip" for 1866 : 



" During the years 1849 and 1850, having nearly 

 daily occasion to frequent that part of the river 

 Dodder which passes through the romantic moun- 

 tain glens of Glemismaul and Castlekelly, the great 

 abundance of the water-ouzel, or, as the peasantry 

 there call it, kingfisher, induced mo to study its 

 habits somewhat particularly. 



" The general habits of the water-ouzel have been 

 so well and so often described that they need not 

 detain \is ; but although it is now some years since 

 M. Herbert announced the fact that this bird is 

 possessed of the power of walking under water, on 

 the bottom of streams, and although the truth of 

 this observation has been strengthened by the evi- 

 dence of such men as St. John, Dilwyn, Rennie, 

 William Thompson, and Macgillivray, yet still there 

 are found many especially among the closet natu- 

 ralists who prefer to ignore the fact altogether, or 

 else assert that this bird's habits in this respect aro 

 identical with those of other divers. 



" My observations, made repeatedly during many 

 months, and having for their object the elucidation 

 of this very point, enable me to corroborate M. 

 Herbert's account in every particular, except that 

 the bird carries down a supply of air to the bottom, 

 enclosed within its wings, in which he most certainly 

 is in error, led away by a fancied analogy between 

 the bird and diving-beetles ; as I have repeatedly 



