rd appeared near
the city, three others were observed on more than one occasion on the
Earlham river, by Mr. Fountaine, of Easton, who is well acquainted with
our British birds; but these suddenly disappeared, and were not seen
again."

And all will disappear, and never be seen again, but in skeleton,
ill-covered with camphorated rags of skin, under the present scientific
dispensation; unless some kind-hearted northern squire will let them
have the run and the dip of his brooks; and teach the village children
to let them alone if they like to wade down to the village.

I am sixty-two, and have passed as much time out of those years by
torrent sides as most people. But I have never seen a water-ouzel
alive.

II.

ALLEGRETTA NYMPHAEA. LILY-OUZEL.

93. We have got so far, by help of our first example, in the etymology
of our entire class, as to rest in the easily memorable root 'dab,'
short for dabble, as the foundation of comprehensive nomenclature. But
the earlier (if not Aryan!) root 'dip,' must be taken good heed to,
also, because, as we further study the customs of aquatic chickens, we
shall find that they really mass themselves under the three great heads
of 'Duckers,' birds that duck their heads only, and stick up their
tails in the air;--'Dippers,' birds that take real dips under, but not
far down, in shallow water mostly, for things at the bottom, or else to
get out of harm's way, staying down about as long as we could
ourselves, if we were used to it;--and 'Divers,' who plunge like stones
when they choose,--can go nobody knows how deep in the deep sea,--and
swim under the water just as comfortably as upon it, and as fast, if
not faster.

But although this is clearly the practical and poetical division, we
can't make it a scientific one; for the dippers and dabblers are so
like each other that we must take them together; and so also the
duckers and divers are inseparable in some of their forms: so that, for
convenience of classing, we must keep to the still more general rank I
have given--dabchick, duck, and gull,--the last being essentially the
aerial sea-bird, which _lives_ on the wing.

94. But there is yet one more 'mode of motion' to be thought of, in the
class we are now examining. Several of them ought really to be
described, not as dipchicks, but as _trip_-chicks; being, as far as I
can make out, little in the habit of going under water; but much in the
habit of walking or tripping daintily