WATER OCZEL. 



TEE WATER OUZEL. 145 



THE WATER .OUZEL. 



The Water Ouzel is, in size, somewhat less than the Blackbird 

 Its bill is black, and almost straight. The 

 eyelids are white. The upper parts of the 

 head and neck are of a deep brown : and the 

 rest of the upper parts, the belly, the vent, 

 and the tail, are black. The chin, the forepart 

 of the neck, and breast, are white or yellow- 

 ish. The legs are black. 



This bird frequents the banks of springs 

 and brooks ; and prefers those of limpid 

 streams whose fall is rapid, and whose bed is broken with stones and 

 fragments of rocks. 



Its habits are singular. Aquatic birds, with palmated feet, swim 

 or dive ; those which inhabit the shores, wade by means of their tall 

 legs, without wetting their body; but the Water Ouzel walks quite 

 into the flood, following the declivity of the ground. It is observed 

 to enter by degrees, till the water reaches its neck ; and it still advances 

 holding its head not higher than usual, though completely immersed. 

 It continues to walk under the water : and even descends to the bottom, 

 where it saunters as on a dry bank. The following is an account of 

 this extraordinary habit, which was communicated by M. Herbert to 

 M. de Buffon : 



" I lay concealed on the verge of the lake Nantua, in a hut formed 

 of pine-branches and snow; where I was waiting till a boat, which 

 was rowing on the lake, should drive some wild ducks to the water's 

 edge. Before me was a small inlet, the bottom of which gently 

 shelved, till the water was two or three feet deep in the middle. 

 A Water Ouzel stopped here more than an hour, and I had full leis- 

 ure to view its manoeuvres. It entered the water, disappeared, and 

 again emerged on the other side of the inlet, which it thus repeatedly 

 forded. It traversed the whole of the bottom, and in so doing seemed 

 not to have changed its element, and discovered no hesitation or re- 

 luctance in the immersion. However, 1 perceived several times, that 

 as often as it waded deeper than the knee, it displayed its wings, -and 

 allowed them to hang to the ground. 1 remarked too, that, when I 

 could discern it at the bottom of the water, it appeared enveloped with 

 air, which gave it a brilliant surface; like that on some sorts of 

 beetles, which in water are always enclosed in a bubble of air. Its view 

 in dropping its wings on entering the water, might be to oonrine this 

 air; it was certainly never without some, and it seemed to quiver. 

 These singular habits were unknown to all the sportsmen with whom 

 I talked on the subject ; and perhaps, had it not been for the accident 

 of the snow-hut in which I was concealed, I should also have for ever 

 remained ignorant of them; but the above facts I can aver, as the 

 bird came quite to my feet, and that I might observe it, 1 refrained 

 from killing it." 



