Dipper. 127 



teristics. Bold, handsome, and active, they are ever presenting 

 themselves to our notice, while the voices of some species are 

 hardly to be surpassed in volume and in sweetness. Their food 

 consists of insects, snails, and worms, and also of fruits and 

 berries, and it is not to be denied that they commit great havoc 

 in the garden as the fruit ripens, though the mischief they then 

 do is more than counterbalanced by the benefit they confer in the 

 destruction of myriads of noxious insects and snails. Most of 

 the species are migratory, if not from the country, yet often from 

 one district to another, and in winter they assemble together in 

 large flocks. Notwithstanding their apparent strength and 

 activity, none of our winter residents seem to suffer more than 

 the thrushes from severe cold ; a very few days of snow suffice to 

 render the fieldfares tame, and in a hard winter, first the redwings,, 

 and then the song-thrushes, die off in great numbers. 



31. DIPPER (Cinclua aquaticus). 



I rejoice to be able to add this species to my list of Wiltshire 

 birds, and I do so with confidence, on the authority of Mr. Ernest 

 Baker, of Mere, who writes on November 10, 1876, that a good 

 specimen of the Dipper had that day been given to him, which was 

 shot the previous day in the Mere stream, and that it was the only 

 individual of its species which he had ever known as killed in this 

 county. Since then, however, I have had a second notice of its 

 appearance in Wiltshire, from Mr. Lowndes, of Castle Combe, whose 

 agent, Mr. Watkins, saw it on the stream in the valley on that 

 beautiful estate. It derives its name, Cinclus, ' tail-mover,' from 

 the Greek xeXXw, ' to wag the tail.' Here it is the ' Dipper,' or 

 'Water Ouzel,' or 'Water Colley;' in Portugal it is Melro Peixeiro, 

 'Fishmonger Thrush ;' and sometimes Melro do Rio, ' River Thrush ;' 

 in Spain, Tordo de Agua, 'Water Thrush;' in Sweden, Strom Stare, 

 'Stream Starling;' and, in France, Merle d'Eau. It is an especial 

 favourite of mine, frequenting, as it does, the torrent or other rocky 

 stream as it rushes over the stones in some mountainous district, 

 generally in the midst of magnificent scenery; and in such districts 

 I have become very familiar with it, in some of the upper valleys 



