. The popular natural history . Zoology. THE DIPPER, OR WATER OUSEL. 317 The Ant Thrushes find an English representative in the well-known Dipper, or Water Ousel, of our river banks. Possessing neither brilliant plumage nor graceful shape, it is yet one of the most interesting of British birds when watched in its favourite haunts. It always frequents rapid streams and channels, and being a very shy and retiring bird, invariably prefers those spots where the banks overhang the water, and are clothed with thick brushwood. Should the bed of the stream be broken up with rocks or large stones, and
. The popular natural history . Zoology. THE DIPPER, OR WATER OUSEL. 317 The Ant Thrushes find an English representative in the well-known Dipper, or Water Ousel, of our river banks. Possessing neither brilliant plumage nor graceful shape, it is yet one of the most interesting of British birds when watched in its favourite haunts. It always frequents rapid streams and channels, and being a very shy and retiring bird, invariably prefers those spots where the banks overhang the water, and are clothed with thick brushwood. Should the bed of the stream be broken up with rocks or large stones, and he fall be sufficiently sharp to wear away an occasional pool, the Dipper is aa the better pleased with its home, and in such a locahty may generally be found by a patient observer. All the movements of this little bird are quick, jerking, and wren-like, a similitude which is enhanced by its habit of continually flirting its apology for a tail. Caring nothing for the frosts of winter, so long as the water. MEADOW PIPIT.—(Anthuspratensis.) remains free from ice, the Dipper may be seen throughout the winter months flitting from stone to stone with the most animated gestures, occasionally stopping to pick up some morsel of food, and ever and anon taking to the water, where it sometimes dives entirely out of sight, and at others merely walks into the shallows and there flaps about with great rapidity. The food of the Dipper seems to be exclusively of an animal character, and, in the various specimens which have been exarhined, consists of insects in their different stages, small crustaceae, and the spawn and fry of various fishes. Its fish-eating propensities have been questioned by some writers, but the matter has been entirely set at rest by the discovery of fish-bones and half-digested fish in the stomachs of Dippers that had been shot. Generally, however, the food consists of water-beetles, particularly of the genus known by the name of Hydrophilus, a flat, oval-shaped insect
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, booksubjectzoology, bookyear1884
