OUSEL, or Ouzel, Anglo-Saxon ósle, equivalent of the German Amsel (a form of the word found in several old English books), apparently the ancient name for what is now more commonly known as the blackbird (q.v.), Turdus merula, but at the present day not often applied to that species, though used in a compound form for birds belonging to another genus and family.
The water-ousel, or water-crow, is now commonly named
the “dipper”—a term apparently invented and bestowed in the
first edition of T. Bewick's British Birds (ii. 16, 17)—not, as is
commonly supposed, from the bird's habit of entering the water
Cinclus mexicanus.
in pursuit of its
prey, but because
“it may be seen
perched on the top
of a stone in the
midst of the
torrent, in a
continual dipping
motion, or short
courtesy often
repeated.” The
English dipper,
Cinclus aquaticus,
is the type of a
small family, the
Cinclidae, probably
more nearly
akin to the wrens (q.v.) than to the thrushes, and with
examples throughout the more temperate portions of Europe
and Asia, as well as North and South America. The dipper
haunts rocky streams, into which it boldly enters, generally
by deliberately wading, and then by the strenuous combined
action of its wings and feet makes its way along the
bottom in quest of its living prey—fresh-water molluscs and
aquatic insects in their larval or mature condition. Complaints
of its attacks on the spawn of fish have not been
justified by examination of the stomachs of captured specimens.
Short and squat of stature, active and restless in its movements,
dusky above, with a pure white throat and upper part of the
breast, to which succeeds a broad band of dark bay, it is a familiar
figure to most fishermen on the streams it frequents. The
water-ousel's nest is a very curious structure—outwardly
resembling a wren's, but built on a wholly different principle—an
ordinary cup-shaped nest of grass lined with dead leaves, placed
in some convenient niche, but encased with moss so as to form
a large mass that covers it completely except a small hole for
the bird's passage. The eggs laid within are from four to seven in
number, and are of a pure white. The young are able to swim
before they are fully fledged. (A. N.)