THE WATER OUZEL. 133 



Singular habits Herbert's account. 



belly, vent, and tail, are black. The chin, the 

 fore-part of the neck, and breast, are white or 

 yellowish. The legs are black. 



The water-ouzel frequents the banks of springs 

 and brooks, which it never leaves ; preferring the 

 limpid streams whose fall is rapid, and whose 

 bed is broken with stones and fragments of rocks. 



The habits of the water-ouzel are very singu- 

 lar. Aquatic birds, with palmated feet, swim or 

 dive; those which inhabit the shores, without 

 wetting their body, wade with their tall legs ; but 

 the water-ouzel walks quite into the flood, fol- 

 lowing the declivity of the ground. It is ob- 

 served to enter by degrees, till the water reaches 

 its neck; and it still advances, holding its head 

 not higher than usual, through completely im- 

 mersed. It continues to walk under the water ; 

 and even descends to the bottom, where it saun- 

 ters as on dry land. M. Herbert communi- 

 cated to the Comte de Buffon the following ac- 

 count of this extraordinary habit. 



" I lay concealed on the verge of the lake Nan- 

 tua, in a hut formed of pine-branches and snow ; 

 where I was waiting till a boat, which was rowing 

 on the lake, should drive some wild ducks to the 

 water's edge. Before me was a small inlet, the 

 bottom of which gently shelved, that might be 

 about two or three feet deep in the middle. A 

 water-ouzel stopped here more than an hour, and 

 I had full leisure to view its manoeuvres. It en- 

 tered into the water, disappeared, and again 



