At present it seems more cannot be said of the range
of our Dipper on the continent than that it seems to occur
generally in suitable localities throughout Central Europe;
for the Dipper which inhabits Scandinavia is by many ornithologists
regarded as a distinct species under the name of
Cinclus .melanogaster, while again that which is found in
Switzerland and most of the mountainous parts of Southern
Europe is believed to form a third species, the C. albicollis.
Thus much has been set forth in a most able paper on the
birds of this genus (Ibis, 1867, p. 109) by Mr. Salvin; but
the view he then took has been somewhat unsettled by the
subsequent discovery by Canon Tristram (tom. cit. p. 466)
that it is the Scandinavian form which breeds in the Pyrenees.
That C. melanogaster occasionally wandered from its
northern home (and it is found in Lapland a long way within
the Arctic Circle), was already known and caused no surprise;
but the fact of its inhabiting a mountain-range so far to the
south, while the intervening countries are presumably occupied
by a different form, makes a belief in the specific distinctness
of the two somewhat hard to accept. For this
reason therefore, it has not been thought advisable to include
the black-breasted Dipper in this work under a separate
heading, though there is excellent authority for its occasional
occurrence in England. Mr. Stevenson, in his ‘ Birds of
Norfolk,’ has shewn that nearly all the Dippers killed in that
county want the chestnut-brown band on the breast, and have
every indication of being of Scandinavian origin. Mr. J. H.
Gurney, Junior, too, has in his collection a black-breasted
Dipper which was obtained in Yorkshire.
The Dipper is secluded in its habits; and it rarely happens
that more than two are seen together except in summer,
when the parents are accompanied by their young. Its
flight is rapid and even, not unlike that of the Kingfisher;
while it much resembles the Wren in its song, its habit of
elevating and jerking its tail, its general manners, and the
form of its domed nest. This last, as here represented from
a specimen received from Yorkshire by the late Mr. Salmon,
consists of an irregularly-shaped exterior casing, some seven
or eight inches deep, and ten or twelve inches across, composed
of various species of mosses, chiefly of the genus Hypnum,
finely felted, so as to form a mass not easily torn asunder,
especially in its lower part. In front is a hole, just admitting
the passage of the bird, and opening upon the nest itself, which
is cup-shaped, from five to six inches in diameter, built of
grass-stems and lined with dead leaves. Placed in a recess
by the side of a stream or under a projecting stone, forming
part of a cascade, and behind the sheet of falling water, the
structure, large as it is, so much resembles a moss-covered
rock, that it may easily escape observation. The Dipper breeds
early in the season. The eggs are five or six in number,
measuring from 1'05 to -97 by from -75 to -72 in., somewhat
pointed at the smaller end, and of a pure, but not glossy,
white.
Macgillivray, who examined the contents of the stomach
in these birds on various occasions, found only beetles and
the animals of freshwater-shells belonging to the genera Lim-
n<ea and Ancylus. Caddis-worms—the larvae of Phryganeai,
besides those of various Libellulce—dragon-flies, Ephemerce
—may-flies, and Hydrophili—water-beetles, have also heen
mentioned, and these are known to be among the aquatic insects
most destructive to fisli-spawn. Yet in some places,
particularly in Scotland, where this bird is known as the