Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1881-01-19
Animal Instinct.

The dIpper or waterousel is well known
/ to Ornithologists as one of the most curiou.
and interesting of British birds. Its spe
| cial habitat is clear mountain streams
| These 1t never leaves except to visit tn,
| lakes INTO which or from which they flow
! Without the assistance of webbed feet, i
! has extraordinary powers of swimming
and of diving-movIng about upon anC
under the surface with more than the ease
and dexterity of fish-hunting along the
bottom as if it had no power to float
I floating on the top as if it had no power tc
| sink-how diving where the stream is
smooth, now where il is quick and broken,
and suddenly reappearing perched on the
summit of some projecting point. Its
piumage is in perfect harmony with its
haunts--dark, with pure white breast,
which looks exactly like one of the flashes
OF light so numerous in rapid streams, or
one of the little balls of foam which loiter
among the stones. Its very song is set to
the music of rapid waters. From the top
of bank one can often get quite close to
it when it is singing, and the harmony of
its Eotes with the tinkling of the stream is
other birds but the robin is Hlent-when
the stones on which it sits are circled and
trimmed with ice. No bird, perhaps, is
more specially adapted to very special
home and very peculiar habits of life. The
same species of other forms so closely
similar as to seem mere varieties, are
found IN almost every country of the world
where there are mountain streams And
yet 1t Is a species having no very near
affinity with any other bird, and it consti-
tutes by itself a separate genus Ii is,
therefore, a species of great interest to the
naturalist, and raises some of the most
perplexing questions connected with the
''origin OF species" In 1874 a pair of
these birds built their nest at lnyerary, in
hole in the wall of a small tunnel con-
structed to carry a rivulet under the walks
of a pleasure ground. The season was
one of great drought, and the rivulet, dur
ing the whole time of incubation and the
growth of the young in the nest, was nearly
entirely dry. One of the nesilings, when
almost fully tledged, was taken out by the
hand for examination, an operation which
so alarmed the others that they darted out
Of the hole and ran and fiuttered down the
tunnel towards its mouth. At that point
considerable pool of water had survived
the drought, and lay in the path of the
fugitives They dit. not at all appear to
seek il; on the contrary their flight seemed
to be as aImless as that of any other fiedg
hing would have been in the same predics-
ment. But one of them stumbled into tie
pool. The effect was most curious. When
the young bird touched the water, there
was a moment of pause, as if the creature
was surprised Then instantly there
seemed to wake within it the sense of its
hereditary powers Down 1t Owed with
all the facility of its parents, and the ac
tion Of its wings under the water was a
beautiful exhibit ON of the double adapta-
ton to progression in two very different
elements, which is peculiar to the wings
of most of the diving birds. The young
dipper was Immediately lost to sight
among some weeds, and so long did it re-
main under water that feared it must be
drowned. But in due time it reappeared
all right, and being recaptured, was re-
placed in the nest.