t)tppep. 
161 
This anomalous bird is lound in Russia, Siberia, and 
Scandinavia generally, and also among the Alpine streams, 
and in Germany and the northern parts of Spain, namely, in 
the Pyrenean range. In Asia it has also been known. 
Tt is a native of the mountainous districts of England, 
Ireland, Scotland, and Wales, frequenting the streams which 
there rise, and following their course into the more lowland 
country, especially in severe weather, when it betakes itself 
to the rapids and falls; occasionally it is to be seen on the 
pebbled and shallow margin of a lake; but it is only a chance 
straggler in any other parts. I have seen it in Yorkshire, 
and on the Goit, which divides Deroyshire from Cheshire. 
In Devonshire it is not uncommon on the rivers that have 
their origin in Dartmoor; also in Cornwall, Westmorland, 
and Cumberland. It has been seen at Wyrardisbury, on the 
Colne, and on the Mole, near Esher, in the neighbourhood 
of London; also in Essex. The Rev. R. P. Alington has seen 
one in Lincolnshire, in the summer, sitting on a stone in the 
middle of a small stream called Hallington Beck, near Louth. 
Id LTorfolk one was shot at Burgh, in the month of November, 
1806 . In the Hebrides it. is well known. 
The Dipper’s habits are retired, in unison with the 
sequestered and secluded situations which it loves. More 
than two are rarely seen in company, excepting indeed in the 
summer, while the parents and the young still associate 
together: four or five may however sometimes be seen fre¬ 
quenting the same stream. That this bird has the power of 
walking at the bottom of the water, is an established fact. 
The argument against its being able to do so, is that to the 
reasoning powers of some persons it does not seem possible. 
Its feet are admirably adapted for holding on to the stones 
over which it makes its way, and for stemming at the same 
time the force of the current; for that no effort is required 
to keep its place below the surface, is what no one has said. 
On dry land it is by no means an expert walker, being there 
evidently out of its element; it perches on the isolated stones 
or rocks around which the rapid stream eddies, or on some 
projecting crag or mound on the bank. In it walks, keeping 
on the bottom as long as you can follow it, and doubtless 
after you have lost sight of it; or alighting on the surface, 
j plunges beneath, and makes its way downwards, exerting its 
wings to aid it in its descent. And agile it is, quick and 
dexterous in ail these its movements; generally proceeding 
YOL. III. M 
