COMMON DIPPER. 255 



the upper parts much paler than in our bird. It is found in Southern 

 Spain, Algiers, Italy, and Greece. In Asia Minor, the Caucasus, and Persia 

 the chestnut on the belly is much darker and the brown of the head and 

 nape extends lower down the back. This form may be called C. albicollis- 

 cashmiriensis ; for in the latter race (C. canlimtrieitsis), which ranges from 

 Cashmere, through South Siberia, to West China, the brown of the head 

 and nape attains its greatest development ou the back, and all traces of 

 chestimt on the breast are lost in the brown of the belly. This race would 

 appear to interbreed, on the one hand, with C. fewco^fts^e;-, for in Krasnoyarsk 

 (where the ranges of the two forms coalesce) every iuteriiiediate form is 

 found, — and, on the other hand, with C. sordjdu, for in the Altai ^Mountains 

 (where the ranges of these two forms coalesce) every intermediate form occurs. 

 In Scandinavia and the adjacent countries of Xorth G-ermauy C nidano- 

 gaster is found with dark head and neck, and with the chestnut below the 

 breast replaced by nearly black. This race is connected witli the South- 

 European form by what we may call C. 'iiielanoyaster-alblcoUis from the 

 (Carpathians, in which the chestnut reappears beluw the breast. 



Besides these variations there are others still more local. In the Peak 

 of Derbyshire, for example, the Dippers, which are found 1500 feet above 

 tlie level of the sea, are darker in colour than those which aie found lower 

 down the valleys, only 500 feet above the sea-level. The same dift'erences 

 have been I'ccorded in Dippers from the Pyrenees ; and it is birds of the 

 year of these forms from high ele\ations which have led so many orni- 

 thologists astray in speaking of the geographical range ot Cluchis agaalicui-, 

 var. inelanog aster. 



The haunts of the Dipper are exclusively confined to the swift-flo\^ ing 

 rocky mountain-streams. On these he is found all the year round, in places 

 where the waters now curl over hidden rocks, or dash round the exposed 

 and mossy ones, and toss and fall in never-ceasing strife. The banks must 

 be rugged also to suit the Dipper, all the better if in the rock-clefts a few 

 mountain-ashes and birches have gained a good hold. But the Dipper is 

 not a bird of the branches. You will make your first acquaintance with 

 him most probably as he dashes rapidly from some water-encircled rock, 

 or as he shoots past you uttering his sharp but monotonous call-note, to 

 alight on some distant stone, or mayhap seek the boiling current itself, to 

 astonish and amuse you by his aquatic gambols. The Dipper is also 

 found on the barest of mountain-torrents, places where not a tree or 

 shrub is found, where the waters roll and tumble in wildest mood across 

 the heathery moors, and down the bare mountain-sides. In the Britisli 

 Isles the Dipper is not a migratory bird, the only wanderers being young 

 birds which emigrate or are driven by their parents from too crowded 

 districts. Daring the keenest weather the resident Dippers do not 

 quit the waters of the I'oaring stream, and are as active amongst the 



