PALLAS’ DIPPER. 
3 
Cinclus, given by Bechstein, Vieillot alone dissenting, and calling 
it Hydrobata. This highly characteristic name, notwithstanding 
its close resemblance in sound and derivation to one already 
employed by Illiger as the name of a family, appears to be a 
great favourite with recent ornithologists, as they have applied it 
successively to several different genera, and Temminck has lately 
attempted to impose it on the genus of Ducks which I had named 
Fuligula. In my system, the genus Cinclus must take its place in 
the family Canori, between the genera Turdus and Myiothera. 
The Dippers, or Water-Ouzels, are well distinguished by their 
peculiar shaped bill, which is compressed-subulate, slightly bent 
upwards, notched, and with its edges bent in, and finely denti¬ 
culated from the middle; but more especially by their long, 
stout, perfectly smooth tarsi, with the articulation exposed, a 
character which is proper to the order of waders, of which they 
have also the habits, nay, are still more aquatic than any of them. 
. , > * 
Their plumage also being thick, compact, and oily, is imperme¬ 
able to water, as much so as that of the most decidedly aquatic 
web-footed birds, for when dipped into it, that fluid runs and drops 
from the surface. Their head is flat, with the forehead low and 
narrow; the neck is stout; the body short and compact; the nos¬ 
trils basal, concave, longitudinal, half covered by a membrane; 
tongue cartilaginous and bifid at tip. Their wings are short and 
rounded, furnished with a very short spurious feather, and having 
the third and fourth primaries longest; the tail short, even, and 
composed of wide feathers; the nails large and robust; the lateral 
. 
toes are subequal, the outer united at base to the middle one, the 
hind toe being short and robust. The female is similar to the 
' t 
male in colour, and the young only more tinged with reddish. 
They moult but once in the year. 
These wild and solitary birds are only met with singly or in 
pairs, in the neighbourhood of clear and swift-running mountain 
