Both sexes of the Water-Ouzel are so much alike that dissection must be resorted to to distinguish
them with certainty; the female is, however, somewhat smaller in size. All that I have seen from Wales,
Derbyshire, and Scotland have the chestnut mark across the abdomen, while in those from Sweden and
Norway the chestnut mark is absent, that portion of the body being of the same sooty-black colour as the
other parts of the plumage. In my work on the Birds o f Europe, I gave a figure of this black-breasted bird
as a distinct species, under the name of Cinclus melanogaster, but at the same time expressed a doubt if this
variation in the colouring of the abdomen was not due to locality, or to some other unexplained cause.
Strange to say, however, the specimens occasionally killed in Norfolk have this character a lso; a t least, I have
just received a letter from H. Stevenson, Esq., of Norwich, in which he states that he has “ two Norfolk-
killed Water-Ouzels, both of which have the black breast without any appearauce of rufous on the abdomen.”
He has “ also seen one or two others during the last few years, killed in that county, which exhibited the
same style o f plumage; they all appeared in autumn or winter, between the months of November and
February. These specimens exactly agree with one collected by the late Mr. Wolley in Lapland, and now in
the Norwich Museum.” Can the black-breasted Water-Ouzels, which are occasionally killed in Norfolk, be stray
birds from the opposite shores of Norway and Sweden, which have found their way across the North Sea ?
I can account for their occurrence in no other way. I may mention that Swiss examples differ both from
our own and the Norwegian birds in having the crown of the head, back of the neck, and the back much
lighter in colour, but resemble ours in having the chestnut-coloured abdomen. These variations, I apprehend,
are due to locality only; for I cannot believe the birds to be specifically distinct.
The site chosen by the Water-Ouzel for the nest, its construction, and the characters of the young
birds are all very curious. It would be supposed that the study of this part o f the bird’s economy would tend
to enlighten us as to its natural position in our systems; but such is not the case; for, after much thought
on the subject, I am necessitated to regard the genus Cinclus as one of the isolated forms of ornithology.
That it appears to have some remote alliance to the members of the genera Troglodytes, Scytalopus, and their
allies, I am ready to admit; at the same time this seeming alliance may be more fanciful than real. Out of
Europe, the true home of the C. aquaticus, several other species of Water-Ouzels are known to exist., both in
the Old and New W o rld ; their head-quarters would seem to be the great Himalaya ranges and their offsets,
for we there find several species. The form also occurs in Japan. In the New World, all the temperate
portions, from the Rocky Mountains to Mexico, are inhabited by a bird of this genus; and among the
torrents of New Granada, Ecuador, and Peru, two species exist which are not found elsewhere.
That the Water-Ouzel changes its locality, and performs partial migrations, is certa in ; for at one period it
may be observed in open broad rivers, at others among the high mountain-rills; and Mr. St. John states,
in his ‘Tour in Sutherlandsbire,’ that in October it “ comes down the burns near the sea,” and adds that
“ these merry little birds resort to the same stone year after y e a r; and seem to be regular attendants on
the small streams where the trout spawn.” From these situations it retires, on the approach of spring, to
its usual breeding-haunts, and commences the task of nidification in the month of April. A nest, taken
from the shelf o f a rock overhanging the stream, sent to me by Colonel Watkyns in May 1858, containing
four young birds, was of a domed form, with an opening in front less neatly constructed than the other p a rt;
it was outwardly formed of green moss very firmly matted or felted together, with a very distinct, thick
lining or inner nest of grasses, within which again was a layer of dead oak- and other leaves.
The eggs are usually four or five in number, of a very delicate transparent pinky flesh-colour before being
blown, after which they become of a pure white. They are of an elegant, lengthened form, somewhat
pointed at the smaller end, one inch and an eighth in length, by three-quarters of an inch in breadth.
The plumage of most British examples may be described as follows:—forehead, crown, space below the
eye, sides and back of the neck chocolate-brown; above and below the eye a small crescent o f white;
feathers of the back, wing, and upper tail-coverts deep grey, bordered with blackish- brown ; wings and tail
brown ; chin and breast white ; centre of the abdomen chestnut; lower part o f the abdomen black ; flanks
and vent dark slate-grey; bill olive-black; irides dark brown; tarsi pale purplish grey in front and on the
upper parts of the toes between the jo in ts , nails nearly black.
The young, when first hatched, and until leaving the nest, have the fleshy gape or sides of the mouth
dilated to an extent not observable in other birds, the Starling and Hoopoe not excepted. This gape and
the inside of the mouth, too, are very beautifully coloured, as will be seen on reference to the accompanying
representation of the nestling birds, with the nest entirely altered in contour by the trampling down of
its sides. At this age their white abdomens are speckled with brown, and by the end o f autumn they are
like the adults.