WItENS. 505 



The general aspect and the habits of the dippers, which alone compose the 

 CINCLID^E, are alike curious. They are birds of the size of a thrush, have short con- 

 cave wings, as the Timaliidaj, a stumped tail, like some formicaroid birds, and a cover- 

 ing of down underneath the contour-feathers, like a water-bird. The oil gland, too, 

 is very large, as in the latter, and serves the same purpose, for the dippers are as 

 expert divers and as much 'water-birds' as most of those commonly so called. They 

 are among the Oscines what the kingfishers are among the Picarians ; but while the 

 latter dart headlong into the water after their prey, like terns, the dippers dive like 

 loons, but without jumping, and frequent rocky and foaming rivulets in search of 

 their food, which consists of water insects, and, occasionally, of fish spawn. But while 

 thus living the life of a water-bird, the dipper proves his right to be ranked with the 

 highest organized birds, the ' songsters,' by its cheerful warble, which it keeps up all the 

 year round, in winter as well as in summer. The dipper nests near the rushing waters 

 of a mountain stream. The structure is large and domed, with an entrance hole on the 

 side, and is firmly constructed of leaves and externally clad with green moss, so as to 

 make it most difficult to discover among the mossy rocks, where it is located often so 

 near the watei - 's edge that the spray keeps it constantly wet. On the whole, the dip- 

 per, both in appearance, movements, nest-building, etc., is a gigantic wren adapted to 

 a life in and at the water. Only one genus ( Cinclus) is known, the species of which, 

 have a very curious geographical distribution, in some respects resembling that of the 

 super-genus Ceryle among the kingfishers, for the dippers are found in greatest abund- 

 ance in the Palsearctic region, whence we trace them into North America, where one 

 species is found in the Rocky Mountains down thi-ough Mexico and Guatemala, and 

 one in Costa Rica and Veragua, the genus to reappear again in the high mountains of 

 South America, three species being found there, among which is the recently-described 

 C. schulzi. There are three styles of coloration in this genus : some species, of which 

 the North European dipper, or water-ouzel ( Cinclus cinclus C. melanogaster), is 

 typical, with dark abdomen and pure white breast; others, like our North American 

 species (C. mexicamis), are dusky all over; while the South American species, and 

 one Asiatic species ( C. leucoy aster), are white beneath, recalling the young plumage 

 of the other species. This fact is noteworthy, as bearing upon the evolutional history 

 of the genus, since it indicates that the Neotropical forms are most like the ancestral 

 stock. Hence we may conclude that the genus Cinclus immigrated into South 

 America before the all dusky style had developed, or that South America is the cradle 

 of the genus, since it is very improbable that the present coloration of the South 

 American species should be due to reversion. 



That the dippers should have originated in the Neotropical region seems not so 

 extraordinary when we consider that this region is the great headquarters of the 

 wrens, or TROGLODYTID./E, whence a few forms have scattered themselves through 

 North America to the Oriental and the PalaBarctic regions. The absence of both fam- 

 ilies in Africa and in Australia is highly suggestive. 



Prof. S. F. Baird was the first to discover and announce the curious fact that some 

 of our western wrens have taxaspidean tarsi. Of the genus Salpinctes he says : 

 "It is, however, especially peculiar among all its cognate genera, by having the usual 

 two continuous plates along the posterior half of the inner and outer faces of the tar- 

 sus divided transversely into seven or more smaller plates, with a naked interval 

 between them and the anterior scutellae. At the upper end of the outer plate these 

 divisions or lines of junction are obsolete, becoming more distinct below, and near the 



