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 i 
the heron, it would be to us, in some sort, what the j 
stork formerly was, and now is, to our continental j 
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 f 
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 Revv 
Mr. Morris. If he infers that birds oil their plumage 
