520 



PASSERIFORMES 



CHAP. 



The sexes are alike, but the J'oung are spotted. Both plumage 

 and down are close and nearly impervious to water. 



These birds range throughout the Palaearctic Eegion, just 



reaching the southern 

 slopes of the Hima- 

 layas, China, and For- 

 mosa. One species 

 occupies the Atlas 

 Mountains, while 

 others occur along 

 the heights of West- 

 ern America, and the 

 Andes southwards to 

 Peru. Individuals of 

 a dark form from 

 Northern Europe 

 occasionally stray to 

 Britain, but such mi- 

 gration is exceptional. 

 Dippers frequent 

 rapid streams in hill- 

 country, which seldom freeze, and appear as cheery in winter as 

 in summer ; their flight is powerful, rapid, and direct, with quick 

 wing-strokes and sudden descent ; their cry upon the wing is loud 

 and clear, their song when stationary Wren-like. They sit on 

 stones in the water, bobbing up and down and jerking their tails, 

 while they use both legs and wings below the surface, whither they 

 dive noiselessly in search of insects, their larvae and pupae, or 

 molluscs. Fish-spawn has not been found in the stomach. The 

 domed, but flattened, nest is composed chiefly of moss or grass, with 

 an inner bed of dry materials, which are generally oak or beech 

 leaves, though in India sometimes ferns and roots. It is affixed 

 to rock-faces, ledges, or boulders in streams, placed in crevices of 

 masonry, or even built in holes in the soil or in debris caught on 

 bushes, common situations being behind water -falls, under bridges, 

 or beside mill-wheels. G. alhicollis seems to make an open fabric 

 in Italy. From four to seven dull white eggs are laid very early 

 in the season, two or even three sets being often produced — 

 occasionally in the same nest. This the young sometimes leave liy 

 the end of March, being able to swim before they are fully fledged. 



Fig. 113. — Dipper. Oinchcs aguaiious. 



