THE DIPPER. 317 



gratifying to watch the manoeuvres of one, than to be in 

 possession of the bodies or skins of fifty. Its food is water 

 flies, water larvae, water insects, worms, and dragon flies, 

 water beetles, and, in short, a variety of animals and animal 

 matters found in the waters. The fry of the trout and 

 salmon, while still in their cradle pools, numerous as motes 

 in the sun, and each not an inch long, form a supply for it, 

 and its young, while these are in the nest. Nor is it at all 

 chary of the nests of the fishes, of those nests under the 

 sand and gravel, each containing thousands, to form and fill 

 which the fish ascend as far as they can by the help of the 

 autumnal floods, and the nests (or rather plantations) of 

 young sprout up in the spring, like young onions in a garden. 

 While the water is unfrozen, the sun acts upon these, and 

 they pass through their stages ; so that while the thrushes, 

 with which the dipper has sometimes been associated in sys- 

 tems, are frozen out on land, the dipper feasts in plenty under 

 the water. 



The dipper catches part of its food standing on land, and 

 some even on the wing, as well as floating on the surface of 

 the water ; but it also catches a considerable part under the 

 water, and the water is its retreat from terrestrial danger. 

 It cannot skim the water so well as if its feet were webbed. 

 Wings, though they help a web-footed bird in running along 

 the water, as may be seen in the case of a duck or goose, 

 are of less use for progressive motion along the surface, if 

 there are not webbed feet to act as fulcra. But the dipper 

 walks into the water, or lights on it from the wing, and in 

 either way gets under the surface, and rises, descends, moves 

 laterally, or appears to walk (actually does walk) along the 

 bottom ; in short, has almost the same command of itself 

 in that singular element for feathers, as other birds have in 

 the air. 



A question has been raised (I do not say among "those 



