Dippers 691 



among ornithologists. By some they are regarded as being most closely allied 

 to the Thrushes, by others to the Wrens, and it must be confessed that, as one 

 of them is seen standing nervously on a projecting rock in the midst of a brawling 

 mountain stream, its appearance and movements do suggest those of "a gigantic 

 Wren." But more than forty years ago Professor Baird insisted on their inti- 

 mate affinity with the Thrushes, and facts have recently come to light which seem 

 to substantiate this view, since it is now known that the first plumage in certain 

 Asiatic species is distinctly spotted, this Thrush-like spotting, in conjunction 

 with booted tarsi, rendering their claims of relationship apparently complete. 

 As Dippers of the New World do not exhibit the spotted plumage, they are 

 beyond serious question less ancient than the stock in which this feature still 

 persists, and hence it is assumed with a great degree of certainty that the cradle 

 of the group is in the great plateau and mountain region north of India, from 

 which point they have spread east, west, and north. Dr. Stejneger in a recent en- 

 tertaining account of these birds is of the opinion that "the origin and beginning 

 of the dispersal of the Dippers took place not later than the dawn of the Tertiary." 

 They are essentially birds of the cold, rushing mountain streams, in the boreal 

 and arctic- alpine zones, and wherever these conditions prevail, provided the 

 avenue has been open, they have gone. Westward they passed by way of Asia 

 Minor into Europe and eventually reached the Atlas Mountains in northwestern 

 Africa, while another branch reached the Pyrenees, the Alps, and Scandinavia. 

 To the eastward they ranged over Siberia, crossed to Alaska by the land bridge 

 which is supposed to have spanned Bering Sea, and thence by the great mountain 

 systems which parallel the Pacific coast have reached their southernmost exten- 

 sion in the New World in northern Patagonia. If Dr. Stejneger's assumption 

 be correct, this dispersal was going on through the entire Tertiary period, and 

 changes in continental elevation have left them stranded here and there in these 

 different parts of the world. They are, however, absent from the mountains 

 of eastern North America. 



The Dippers are compact, stout-bodied little birds, slightly smaller than the 

 American Robin, though more plump, with very stout legs, short, rounded, 

 very concave wings, and a very short tail which contains twelve feathers. The 

 whole plumage, which is mainly plain gray or brownish in coloration, is very 

 dense and close, for beneath the outer contour feathers there is a thick covering 

 of down after the manner of water birds, and like them they are also provided 

 with a large oil-gand. These features are of course in no manner an indication 

 of kinship with water birds, but are simply an adaptation to their peculiar mode of 

 life. As Coues has delightfully expressed it : "... It is one of the endless instances 

 of nature's delight in paradoxes her magical way of putting the same thing 

 to the most diverse uses, with a touch of her cunning wand. Given a brawling 

 brook, too small, clean, and cold to suit any of the water birds she has on hand, 

 but just the thing for a kind of Thrush, if he can be made to understand it; 

 when presto ! Cinclus. The odd little bird puts on his water-proof diving appa- 

 ratus, takes a 'header' from the nearest green, slippery rock, and likes it so 

 well that he wonders why he never did it before." 



