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Wild Life in Wales 



who have paid closest attention to the subject, that my only 

 excuse for dwelling upon the matter here is that I happen 

 to have had a good many opportunities of demonstrating its 

 innocence of the charges that it used to be the fashion to 

 hurl against it, and the bird is always such a charming little 

 companion of the solitary fisherman that it behoves him, of 

 good fellowship, to sing its praises, in return, whenever 

 occasion offers. 



On Bala Lake, where a good many Dippers may usually 

 be seen, it is quite common to see them alighting on the 

 water, at quite considerable distances from the shore, and 

 swimming and diving about, over the submerged shallows, 

 like little ducks. I have seen them feeding so at quite 

 twenty yards from the water's edge, and although the habit 

 is common enough elsewhere, it is not in many places that 

 it can be so easily observed, and it may be new to some of 

 my readers. 



The Dipper is variously known, in Wales, as Y Trochwr, 

 or the ducker ; Wil-y-dwr^ Merwys, Trochydd, Lledwed, 

 'Tresglen-y-dvor, or water thrush ; Bronwen-y-garw, or white 

 breast of the torrent ; Gwylch-y-dwfr, Bronfraith-y-dwr, and 

 Mwyakh-y-dwr, or water blackbird ; names commonly 

 duplicated in other languages, as Merle plongeur in French ; 

 Wasseramsel in German ; Ess feannag, or crow of the water- 

 fall, Gobha uisge, and Gobha dhubh nan #///, water blackbird, in 

 Gaelic ; and Fosse konge, or king of the waterfall, in Norwegian. 

 Water Crow is one of its most familiar English designa- 

 tions. It was the late Duke of Argyll, I think, who so 

 happily described the Dipper's song as being " attuned to 

 the sound of running water " ; it may be heard in snatches 

 during almost any month of the year, but is most character- 

 istic of late autumn, and very early ' spring, when the 

 minstrel will often perform gaily, even perched upon a 

 block of ice. One old lady amongst the Merionethshire 

 mountains told me that there was a saying to the effect that 

 " the water crow keeps the miller from feeling dull at his 

 work " ; and one which built every year beside her own 

 water-wheel, she called her Calon fach, or " Good little 

 heart," so endeared had it become by long association. 



