190 



THE DIPPER. 



the increase of rats and frogs. Little, indeed, must 

 be those depredations : for fishermen are allowed 

 to come hither, during the summer, in unrestricted 

 numbers, and the herons have their nests in the trees 

 which hang over the water ; still there is always a 

 most plentiful supply of fish. 



If country gentlemen would grant protection to 

 the heron, it would be to us, in some sort, what the 

 stork formerly was, and now is, to our continental 

 neighbours; namely, an ornamental and a useful bird. 

 Though it certainly would not be so domestic as the 

 stork, still the protection afforded it would tend 

 considerably to change its present habits. Nothing 

 but the roar of guns, the prejudices of pond-owners, 

 and the barbarity of gamekeepers, has rendered the 

 heron a shy, degraded, and devoted bird. 



THE DIPPER, 



Mr. Waterton will not, I believe, allow that birds ever oil 

 their feathers ; but I would wish to ask of him, how he accounts 

 for the fact that, while the feathers of a thrush or robin, if 

 they have only fallen into the water for a few minutes, become 

 totally spoiled, as far as the purposes of stuffing are concerned, 

 those of the dipper may remain half an hour or more in the 

 water without receiving any damage?" {Rev.F.O. Morris, 

 in Mag. Nat. Hist, vol. viii. p. 375.) 



I CANNOT account for the fact stated by the Rev. 

 Mr. Morris. If he infers that birds oil their plumage 



