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AMERICAN DIPPER. 
Cinclus Americanus, Swains . 
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 grounds, 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 
