316 INSECTIVOKE. 



rently helpless, that he imagines it unfledged, utterly incapable 

 of gaining the sky, of which a mere stripe appears over head, 

 and thus " a something," which he can easily catch and carry 

 home as a triumph of his victory over the wild. As he 

 gives chase, with all the confidence of one who drives 'deer 

 into a tincJial^ or ducks into a decoy, the dipper flits on from 

 stone to stone, flirting its tail, and ever and anon jerking 

 round, as if half astonished, half inviting. So onward they 

 fare, till they come to a bolder and tougher stratum which 

 has obstructed the stream, but at the same time given it fall 

 and force to scoop out a pool below, which, though it boils 

 where the cascade plunges (or rather where it rises again), is 

 placid compared with the brawlings that have been passed. 

 The water merely laves a beach of clean pebbles ; the rocks 

 on the other side are " sky-high," without footing even for a 

 bird ; and the breast, over which the water dashes, seems too 

 high for a thing so hopping and badly winged. The bird 

 halts on the beach ; and the sportsman rushes forward, hat 

 in hand, to the capture ; but the wet stones are treacherous, 

 endlong he falls, dips himself, and, rising, sees the hat which 

 was to capture the bird, whirling round and round in the 

 eddies. The bird, too, has vanished it is a sprite to wile 

 him into peril. But it soon bobs to the surface, at the lower 

 end of the pool on the other side, with its feathers dry 

 without any shaking off of the water, and, leaping first on 

 one stone and then another, it descends the ravine with the 

 same nonchalance that it ascended. To recover the hat is a 

 much more arduous matter than to lose the bird ; but that, 

 too, may be accomplished with one of the long suckers of 

 hazel which grow fr$m the tangled and gnarled stool on the 

 bank, though if the hold be not taken warily, and kept care- 

 fully, there may be a second dipping and yet no dipper to 

 boast of. 



The dipper is, in fact, a very curious bird, and it is more 



