BLACK WATER-OUSEL, OR DIPPER. 359 
hind the waterfall when it overshoots the impending 
rocks. Water is, in fact, their proper element, though 
they are neither fitted to swim nor to wade with ordinary 
aquatic birds, but they walk or fly with ease beneath it, 
across streams from bank to bank ; they even walk in this 
way submerged, among the gravel against the force of the 
current. When the water becomes deep enough for 
them to plunge, they open and drop their wings, with an 
agitated motion, and with the head stretched out, as in 
the ordinary act of flying in the air, descend to the bot- 
tom, and there, as if on the ground, course up and down 
in quest of food. While under the water, to which their 
peculiar plumage is impermeable, they appear silvered 
over with rapidly escaping aerial bubbles, and bid defi- 
ance to every enemy while defended in so singlar a re- 
treat. When out of the water they also run with rapidi- 
ty, and fly direct and swift as an arrow, skimming the 
surface of their favorite element, in the manner of the 
Kingfisher ; and at the next moment, as the case may be, 
they are perhaps seen to plunge out of sight without 
alighting, and, like the Loon, again come into view in 
the eluding distance. While on the wing they utter a 
shrill and feeble cry, occasionally varied ; and in the 
very depths of winter and early spring contribute to cheer 
their wild and dreary haunts by their simple, clear, and 
sweetly warbled notes. 
They pair early, and are said to raise two broods in 
the season. The young, while yet unfledged, escape 
from threatening danger by dropping from their impend- 
ing nest into the surrounding water. This curious cra- 
dle, by the side of some romantic mountain rivulet, on 
the ledge of a rock, steep mossy bank, or near some fallen 
block from the cliff, is made in the form of a dome, the 
frame-work often of moss ( hypno ) and sweet wood-roof 
