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AMERICAN DIPPER. 



•— Cinclus Amekicanus, Sivains. 

 PLATE CXXXVII.— Male and Female. 



The specimens from which the figures here given have been taken, were 

 procured on the Rocky Mountains, on the 15th of June, when they were 

 supposed to be breeding, so that they were probably adults in full plumage. 

 Having little taste for critical discussions, I shall refrain from inflicting on 

 the reader a long and elaborate review of all that has been said on the 

 subject of this interesting but little-known bird, which was figured by the 

 Prince of Musignano from a specimen obtained near the sources of the 

 Athabasca river, under the name of Cinclus Pallasii; and has been described 

 by Mr. Swainson, first as C. Mexicanus, and again, in the Fauna Boreali- 

 Americana, as C. Americanus. Unfortunately very little is known respect- 

 ing the habits of the American Dipper, which, however, being in form and 

 size so very similar to that of Europe, probably resembles it in its mode of 

 life. I will therefore endeavour to supply the deficiency by presenting you 

 with some extracts from the history of the latter, as given by my friend 

 William Macgillivray, of Edinburgh, who, among the wild hills of his 

 native country, has studied its habits with a zeal and acuteness certainly not 

 exceeded by those of any ornithologist. 



"This bird having in a particular manner engaged my attention in the 

 course of my many rambles, I have been enabled to trace its history in a 

 satisfactory degree, so that the account here presented of it I consider as 

 amongst the most accurate of those which I have written. 



"It frequents the sides of rivers and streams of inferior magnitude, espe- 

 cially such as are clear and rapid, with pebbly or rocky margins. I have 

 met with it in every part of Scotland, as well as in the hilly parts of 

 Cumberland and Westmoreland, and it is said by Montagu to occur in 

 Wales and Devonshire. In Scotland it is not peculiar to the mountainous 

 regions, being found in the lowest parts of the Lothians, as well as on the 

 alpine rills of the Grampians, and other elevated tracts, but it is generally 

 more abundant in hilly ground, and, although never common in any district, 

 is nowhere more plentiful than on the Tweed and its tributaries, in the 

 pastoral counties of Peebles and Selkirk. It is also a well-known inhabitant 

 of all the larger Hebrides. It is not only a permanent resident, but seldom 



