98. DIPPER. 
British Museum, it appears to me that C. melanogaster is merely a 
dark form which inhabits the northern countries of Europe, as well 
as the higher mountain regions of the south. Even in Derbyshire 
the Dippers fromthe Peak district at 1,500 feet are darker than birds 
from 1,000 feet lower down; and examples from the upper portions 
of the narrow valleys of the Pyrenees above Luz, as well as the 
lofty Cantabrian Mountains, in North-western Spain, are indistin- 
guishable from Scandinavian specimens. At lower elevations, and 
also on the river Genil near Granada, the Dippers have a broad 
chestnut band, and belong to a race intermediate between our 
British form and another—paler on the back—called by separatists 
C. albicollis ; the last-named inhabiting the Alps, the Carpathians, 
Italy and Greece. From the Caucasus and Asia Minor eastward to 
Tibet, intergraduating races lead to the browner-backed C. cash- 
miriensis ; while in the Atlas Mountains is found yet another form, 
distinguished by Canon Tristram as C. minor. Judging from the 
above I still (1897) consider it advisable to treat both the forms of 
Dipper which occur in our islands under one heading, while admitting 
that the extremes of each race are recognizable. 
The nest is a large oval ball.of moss, grass or leaves, and 
generally lined with dead leaves; the entrance being low down in the 
side. It is placed in a hole under a bridge, in the wall of a mill-dam, 
in a bank, or on a ledge of rock, often behind a cascade of water ; 
sometimes in the boughs of low trees overhanging a river. The 
4-6 eggs are of a dull white: measurements 1 in. by 75 in. Fully 
fledged young have been found on March 21st; and not only are two 
and even three broods reared in the season, but a second or even third 
clutch of eggs is occasionally deposited in the same nest. The song, 
begun in autumn, may frequently be heard throughout the winter, and 
always early in spring. The food consists of soft-shelled molluscs, 
spiders, aquatic beetles and other insects, with their larvee, many of 
which are known to be destructive to the spawn of trout and salmon. 
The bird sinks in a peculiar way, without taking a “header ”; in pursuit 
of its prey, it employs both legs and wings, using the latter like oars, 
and the young are able to swim freely as soon as they leave the nest. 
Adult: head and nape umber-brown ; back and tail-coverts slate- 
grey, mottled with brown; tail and wing-feathers dark brown; chin, 
throat and upper breast white; lower breast dark chestnut-brown, 
passing into black on the flanks and lower belly ; bill brownish- 
black ; legs and feet brown. Length 7 in.; wing 3°6 in. The 
sexes are alike in plumage. The young are greyish-brown above, 
and have no chestnut-brown on the under parts. 
