86 



BRITISH BIRDS 



The alpine accentor (Accentor collaris), a larger species than 

 our hedge-sparrow, which it resembles in colour, is known as a 

 straggler to England from the mountainous districts of Central and 

 Southern Europe. 



Dipper. 

 Cinclus aquaticus. 



Upper plu- 

 mage brownish 

 black tinged with 

 grey ; throat and 

 breast pure white ; 

 belly chestnut- 

 brown ; bill black ; 

 feet horn- colour. 

 Female : colours 

 dingy. Length, six 

 inches and a half. 



The dipper, or 

 water-ouzel, differs 

 considerably in ap- 

 pearance, and still 

 more in habits, 

 from all other 

 British birds ; as 



is the case with such species as the wryneck, cuckoo, kingfisher, 

 bearded tit, tree-creeper, starling, and nuthatch, there is no other like 

 him. In figure he is wren -like, stout and compact in body, with short, 

 rounded wings and short, square tail, which, as with the wren, is 

 often carried upright and jerked. He is a little less than the song- 

 thrush in size, and is conspicuously coloured, the greater part of the 

 plumage being black, or blackish brown ; and, in strong contrast, the 

 throat and upper part of the breast shining white a big black wren 

 with a silvery white bib. 



Some species always live and move within such narrow limits, 

 or, in other words, are so dependent on certain conditions, that we 

 invariably think of them in association with their surroundings : 

 the snipe with the boggy soil ; the rock-pipit with the rock-bound 

 seashore ; the tree-creeper with the tree he climbs upon ; the lark 

 with the cultivated fields ; and the swift with the void blue sky, through 



FIG. 32. DIPPER. natural size. 



